Reclaim Alabama: June 2021

3 months out ~ June 30, 2021 ` 365 days ahead and 3 YEARS OUT

VISIT CAMELLIACRUCIANVILLE

SYMBOLS

SIGNAL OF FRIENDSHIP

June 30- New Year's Eve

There were two main public wells in Tuscaloosa. They were located in the middle of intersection of Greensboro Avenue (Market Street) and University Boulevard (Broad Street) and in the middle of the intersection at Greensboro and 6th Street (Cotton Street). The well on 6th Street was considered by Tuscaloosa society to be for drivers of out-of-town wagons that frequented that intersection because the meat market was there. It was felt that the well on University was for the ladies of the town. They probably didn't want to see any of the drivers' women either. The newspaper and the politicians were constantly being given hell by the ladies to somehow legally require out-of-towners to use the 6th Street well. I was wondering whether any of y'all have run into that while studying Mobile.

Basil Manly and Denmark Vesey

https://sbts-wordpress-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/sbts/uploads/2018/12/Racism-and-the-Legacy-of-Slavery-Report-v3.pdf

Slavery in Alabama https://confederateearthhistory.blogspot.com/?fbclid=IwAR23xCEwRpMGRIUm0xP-Uly-Yjw3mU4K87DHa82bGfIso4Ad8YarYz_l07c

DAY !

rom a page 8 article in the April 21, 1973 issue of RECORD WORLD:

THE ATLANTA RHYTHM SECTION

ATLANTA- THE ATLANTA RHYTHM SECTION, whose second album has just been released by Decca Records, is a composite of six highly seasoned and talented musicians that have been around the world of rock for a number of successful years.

Along with producer Buddy Buie the group members have written over 20 chart singles as recorded by many pop music greats. They have played on untold recording dates as Atlanta's most demanded studio group.

Lead vocalist Ronnie Hammond is the newest member of THE ATLANTA RHYTHM SECTION making his debut recording performance with the group on the LP "Back Up Against The Wall," A native of Macon, Georgia. Hammond worked with a number of local and regional groups before becoming an engineer at an Atlanta recording studio where he was discovered by Buddy Buie.

Rhythm guitarist J.R. Cobb has written the hits "Most of All."Stormy" and "Traces" in collaboration with producer Buddy Buie. After his graduation from high school in Jacksonville, Florida, Cobb worked for a time as a welder before joining Dennis Yost and the Classics IV. He left the group after co-writing their first hit "Spooky."

In addition to playing on numerous recording sessions, drummer Robert Nix has co-written the hits "Mighty Clouds of Joy" and "Cherry Hill Park" among others. One of Roy Orbison's CANDYMEN, he remained with the group after they went on their own by signing with ABC Records.

Bassist Paul Goddard, who played on his first recording date in 1964, worked with Roy Orbison and Columbia recording artist MYLON before joining THE ATLANTA RHYTHM SECTION.

Dean Daughtry, who worked with Nix in THE CANDYMEN before joining DENNIS YOST AND THE CLASSICS IV, started playing keyboards at the age of five in Coffee County, Alabama churches.

Decatur Georgia native Barry Bailey, who plays lead guitar with THE ATLANTA RHYTHM SECTION, took formal lessons at the age of 12 and studied music theor in college. He also plays sitar, bass and piano. Before joining ATLANTA, he worked with hometown friend Mylon LeFevre in THE HOLY SMOKE BAND.

I'm mighty proud of myself this afternoon. I finished the first segment of the DEVIL MAKE A THIRD Primer. It is an analysis of the first two chapters and its interlude. Here's my conclusion and a link to the blog.

"In these first two chapters and the interlude, Dougie Bailey establishes most of the characters from which all of the novel's action will emerge and gives the reader a vivid portrait of a railroad boomtown's commercial environment which produces all of the obstacles that the character of Buck Bannon will conquer. There's no idealism or striving for social justice in Devil Make A Third. It is a down-to-earth story of how one country boy leaves home to move to a strange place armed only with a $20 gold coin and an optimism which allows him to confront everything that stands in the way of his progress and to overcome every challenge." https://privatepropertynotrespass.blogspot.com/

INTERLUDE #1

An interlude is a literary device where the author breaks from the narrative to insert a story that somehow connects to the theme of the novel. Twelve times through DEVIL MAKE A THIRD, the author breaks the flow of the narrative to give the reader an intimate conversation between two railroad brakemen, Jake Willis and Bascom Wooten. This first interlude is concurrent with the plot but moves the action forward 16 months.

From their first conversation we learn that the past year has been a lucrative one for young Buck Bannon's after-hours loan business @ Green's Store. By charging 25 % interest per week on a $2 loan, Buck spends his time making Aven's citizens his loan customers instead of making them his friends. In the case of Jake and Bascom, both of their lives of debt peonage to Buck Bannon began the day they were broke before payday but wanted to go the whorehouse. By pawning their watches and borrowing two bucks from Buck so they could go see Aven's girls, each one of the pair, in the words of Tennessee Ernie Ford, "sold his soul to the company store"; "The company store" in this case being a nineteen-year-old entrepreneur who only wants his loan customers to ignore their mounting debt and to cover their loan's interest every payday, insuring that they live the rest of their lives making Buck Bannon a profit.

Both of these brakemen feel like idiots when they have to give this new kid in town money every payday but Bascom has the added guilt of knowing "I'm the damned fool that started it all. 'F I hadn't borrowed the first dollar from Buck Bannon, he'd never o' made a loan. I was itchin' to get to Mabe's place and didn't have a copper. By God, I had to tell him how much interest to charge, and I offered to put up my watch."

Buck Bannon's missed out on attending a university's school of commerce so the dusty streets of Aven became his classroom and every railroad payday found him marking his account book, collecting his loan payments and "figurin' how much us railroaders own him. Been there ever' payday for over a year." Buck's successful first year living in town taught him many tricks of his new trade but he also learned to acquire some of same habits that afflicted his loan customers. Jake and Bascom took satisfaction in knowing that they were there when Buck, the green country boy who just walked out of the piney woods, was introduced to Aven's sketchy adult entertainment provided by the whores down at Mabe's Place. As they laugh about the memory, Jake imitates Buck's slow drawl as he stood goggling the curtains and mirrors inside the fancy foyer of Mabe's place, "Jake, them's white girls."

With this first mention of the race of Mabe's prostitutes, the author lets the reader know that Aven is a segregated society and during the course of the novel, the author never makes comments nor condemns Aven's discriminatory customs which condemned many of its residents to a life of toil for which they received little compensation. There are no strong Black characters in the novel and in the twenty or so places where Blacks make an appearance, they work in menial jobs such as waiters, bellboys, cooks, shoe shine boys, maids, cooks, chauffeurs, or farm laborers. The closest the author gets to an enterprising Black character is a street corner preacher who has some goats to sell. The legacy of slavery is mentioned only once and that was part of an elaborate rationalization concerning his rich former father-in-law Buck which brings up to justify his own greed, "I got no guilty feelings. Maybe I've squeezed a mortgage too close and maybe I've shaved off a little for myself when I bought for the city. Folks forget anyhow. They've forgot how old Longshore's folks trafficked in slaves so they could raise him in a big white house in the middle of ten thousand acres of sandy loam. Maybe forty-fifty years from now, some Bannon'll be oozin' religion at the church door and folks won't remember that Buck turned his eyes off while his hands gathered a crop they didn't make."

In this first two chapters and the interlude, Dougie Bailey establishes all the characters from which all of the novel's action will emerge and gives the reader a vivid portrait the commercial environment of a booming railroad town which produces all of the obstacles that the character of Buck Bannon will conquer. There's no idealism or striving for social justice in Devil Make A Third. It is a down-to-earth story of how one country boy leaves home to move to a strange place armed only with a $20 gold coin and an optimism which allows him to confront every obstacle to his progress and to overcome each one.

Buck's dream-like stream of consciousness is interrupted by the yells of a railroad clerk who ends up offering Buck a laborer's job as soon as he wakes up. Buck declines saying,"Much obliged but I ain't aimin' to dig in no more dirt." Buck bids the clerk goodbye ,hops off the baggage truck and begins his first walk down Aven's single business street. He's hungry and he wants a job "long as it ain't handlin' a tool."

Buck's short journey ends in front of a general store where he encounters a family from the country who have come to town intent on trading a calf for seed and tobacco. As Buck and the family wait for the owner of the store to wait on customers, Buck decides he'll do the owner of the store a favor and see if he can be of service to the waiting family himself. This results in Buck trading a sack of seed, two plugs of tobacco and a stick of licorice candy for the calf. Both Buck and the family are pleased with the trade and the family leaves the store with the goods and with Buck in possession of the calf.

When the store owner finally gets the time to wait on Buck, he is enraged to find out that Buck has taken such liberty with his merchandise but when Buck offers to buy the calf in order to cover the cost of merchandise he traded to the family, the owner declines the offer because he knows the calf is worth twice as much as the goods Buck traded for it. Buck asks for a job and the owner agrees and shakes on the deal before he and Buck ever discuss salary.

Their salary negotiations result in Buck getting the sales job in the store plus the owner agrees to allow Buck to live in the back of the store. Living in proximity to the source of one's cash flow is a theme repeated for the rest of the novel. The new store's business is so hectic that the owner understands he needs an employee like Buck and allowing him to live in the back of the store frees him from having to open up in the morning. During these negotiations, Buck takes the liberty of eating a couple of the store's bananas so in his first hour of being in Aven, Chapter 2 ends with Buck accomplishing everything he set out to do on his first morning in Aven,"Food comes first. Then I got to get me a job-job where a man don't have to use a tool." And he does it without ever breaking his $20 gold piece.

Convict labor is at the root of the disastrous ending of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD:

from page 353:

Buck began to tap on the table for emphasis. "Remember, he's a Georgia contractor?"

Jeff nodded.

"Remember how long he'd been on the foundation when I placed the bets?"

Jeff tried to think. "Around ten days," he said.

"That's right. Well, on that day I happened to see one of the workmen rubbing salve on a scar on his ankle." He paused. "It went all the way around his leg."

Jeff's forehead wrinkled. "Convict?"

Buck nodded.

Chapter 2

DEVIL MAKE A THIRD is not structurally complex. The events in each chapter occur chronologically from about 1890 until 1915, however, the author employs 12 asides called Interludes to move the timeline forward rapidly so that the novel can cover over 25 years of Buck Bannon's life within its 33 chapters. Each Interlude is a confidential conversation between two railway brakemen who always discuss the consequences of Buck's actions in Aven which have been described in a few previous chapters. Chapter 1, Chapter 2 and the first Interlude make up the first of these 13 major divisions of the novel. Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 describe Buck's life on the family farm, Buck's first impressions of Aven and how he got into the position to make his fortune on his first morning after waking up in town. The first Interlude has the brakemen discuss how the action in the first two chapters has shown how Buck became Aven's first teenage loan shark and on the road to riches a little over a year after arriving in town.

Chapter 2 opens on Buck's first morning in Aven with him resting on top of a baggage truck beside Aven's railroad depot. The strict order of the chapters does not prevent the author from taking an excursion into the past. The first three pages of Chapter 2 describe, through Buck's dream-like stream of consciousness, his impressions of two of his younger brothers and his parents. Buck judges his new bed on top of the baggage truck to be superior to the pallet which he had shared with two brothers on the floor of their parents' house during the nights before arriving in Aven. This view of the two younger brothers through Buck's mind's eye shows the reader the characteristics of Jeff Bannon which will lead him to become Buck's life-long business partner and the flaws of Hearn Bannon which will result in Buck finally telling his despicable brother in Chapter 27, "I'd have killed any other man. You'll be lucky to just walk out."

After thoughts of his brothers fade, Buck then recalls a philosophical expression his mother used to describe the fear she held for the future of her family: "Shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves." This popular 19th century expression was used to describe the phenomenon of one generation of a family that overcame poverty by accumulating wealth having the family's fortune destroyed by the poor decisions of future generations who refuse to make the sacrifices necessary to maintain the family's assets. Jeannie Bannon's doubts about her sons' ability to hold on to what she and Joe had accumulated during the tumultuous years during and immediately after Reconstruction drive Buck's ambition and makes him strive to show his mother that she has raised a farm boy who uses his rural experience to conquer every obstacle that the growing young town of Aven puts in front of him.

This chapter introduces the reader to the newly constructed town of Aven consisting of "a row of tin-roofed store buildings lining the street nearest the railroad" and a few unpainted houses. At the end of some trails leading off from the one business street could be found a few painted houses owned by the village elite. Buck sees Aven's new buggies and painted houses and knows he has to find a way so he can own a new buggy and a new house . As the novel progresses, this "germ of a town" grows along with Buck's business success and just as Buck appears to adopt Aven as his home at first sight, the people of Aven will also adopt Buck as one of their own and will extend the opportunity for him to express his commercial and political genius in every chapter of the novel that follows this one. Buck's obsession with guiding Aven's growth is a major force in moving the novel's action forward but Buck's first impression of the town is that "right now it looks like somebody just flung it out there because they didn't have no use for it."

Buck's dream-like stream of consciousness is interrupted by the yells of a railroad clerk who ends up offering Buck a laborer's job as soon as he wakes up. Buck declines saying,"Much obliged but I ain't aimin' to dig in no more dirt." Buck bids the clerk goodbye and hops off the baggage truck to begin his first walk down Aven's single business street. He's hungry and he wants a job "long as it ain't handlin' a tool."

Buck's short journey ends in front of a general store where he encounters a family from the country who have come to town intent on trading a calf for seed and tobacco. As Buck and the family wait for the owner of the store to wait on customers, Buck decides he'll do the owner of the store a favor and see if he can be of service to the waiting family himself. This results in Buck trading a sack of seed, two plugs of tobacco and a stick of licorice candy for the calf. Both Buck and the family are pleased with the trade and the family leaves the store with the goods and with Buck in possession of the calf.

When the store owner finally gets the time to wait on Buck, he is enraged to find out that Buck has taken such liberty with his merchandise but when Buck offers to buy the calf in order to cover the cost of merchandise he traded to the family, the owner declines the offer because he knows the calf is worth twice as much as the goods Buck traded for it. Buck asks for a job and the owner agrees and shakes on the deal before he and Buck ever discuss salary.

Their salary negotiations result in Buck getting the sales job in the store plus the owner agrees to allow Buck to live in the back of the store. Living in proximity to the source of one's cash flow is a theme repeated for the rest of the novel. The new store's business is so hectic that the owner understands he needs an employee like Buck and allowing him to live in the back of the store frees him from having to open up in the morning. During these negotiations, Buck takes the liberty of eating a couple of the store's bananas so Chapter 2 ends with Buck accomplishing everything he set out to do on his first morning in Aven,"Food comes first. Then I got to get me a job-job where a man don't have to use a tool." And Buck does it all without ever breaking his $20 gold piece.

Nobody knows who named the original post office "Dothan" but it wasn't Reverend J.Z.S. Connelly. He took credit for it but that was all a big lie.

Page Buck felt the hard clutch go out of his throat and chest then. He laughed out loud. He straightened up, quickly, and jerked the plow point out of the dirt. He tossed the handles slightly higher to point the plowshare straight down and drove it deep into the last unplowed spot. Then he lowered his head a little and looked upwards at his mother.

"Mother," he said,"this is the last time I'll ever follow a mule. I got twenty dollars and I'm headin' for town."

Captain G.Y. Malone moved to Dothan in 1897 and by 1898 had constructed a large house on Foster Street. (from the July 21, 1897 Geneva Tribune)

Captain G.Y. Malone may have been one of the models Dougie Bailey used for the character of AMOS LONGSHORE in DEVIL MAKE A THIRD but one thing we know for certain is where Dougie got the name LONGSHORE. There's an interesting TUSCALOOSA CONNECTION to the Dougie Bailey's novel DEVIL MAKE A THIRD. Dougie's wife's mother, Emma Friedman Herzberg, was the sister of Sam Friedman and Hugo Friedman, both important civic leaders in Tuscaloosa and supporters of the University of Alabama. Friedman Hall where I roomed as a freshman was named for Hugo whose financial support of Alabama football enabled the team to win the championships that put BAMA in the national spotlight. Well, Sam was married to Annie Laurie Longshore so Dougie's wife's aunt's maiden name was Longshore and this was the name Dougie chose for the surname of his novel's banker who in the novel gives Buck Bannon his first loan, whose daughter becomes Buck's first wife and whose threat to eliminate the City of Aven's credit leads Buck to regulate Aven's prostitutes, gamblers and bootleggers with city taxes. (from the October 27, 1953 Dothan Eagle)

Buck's opinion of mules and plows

"rootin' for vittles in this here sorry clay" (page 15)

"Don't let Papa make you plow the big mule, boy," he said, "Big John'll pure pull yore arms out at the sockets. But you got to quit sleepin' in the cotton rows when you ought to be choppin'." (page 17-18)

"Much obliged, " he said slowly, "but I ain't aimin' to dig in no more dirt."

"Food comes first. Then I got to get me a job- job where a man don't have to use a tool. Tool jobs make corns on a man's hands and when he gets through he's so tired he ain't got sense enough to spend his money right. Now, I got to lay onto the right job, but I don't know what it is. I oughtn't to make so much difference, lonng as it ain't a tool job. I hate to sweat." (page 24)

Saw a Fitts sign on the Jemison-Wilbourne House (circa 1870) on the corner of 19th Avenue and 7th Street yesterday. The structures on the lower right on this image are what was drawn 1887 panoramic map. From this it looks as if the house has had extensive remodeling since 1870. The fractional block that the old Earl Studio is left of it and appears to be a wooded park. Turner-McAlpin-Fellows House (c. 1840) 621 Queen City Avenue is on the left of this image. The McEachin-Little House (c. 1842) 709 Queen City is on the right of this image.

Buck Carriage House (c. 1854) 1818 University Boulevard is behind the Buck House in this image that once stood on the northeast corner of "Bear St." (19th Ave.) and "Broad" (Univ. Blvd.) #5. Guild-Verner House (c. 1822) is the red brick building across "Bear St." from the Buck House in this image. #6. Owen-Free House (c. 1826) 1817 3rd Street is a part of a complex of buildings on the right side of the square in this image occupied by #3~Jones House. #7. Moody-Warner House (1822) 1925 8th Street is toward the upper right corner of this image one block above the title "Union Street" (7th St.). #8. Jemison-Brandon-Waugh (c. 1840) 1005 17th Ave. is in the upper right corner of this image. #9. Marmaduke Williams House (c. 1835) 907 17th Ave. is to the left of #8. #10. Foster-Murfee-Caples House (c. 1838) 815 17th Avenue is the large house with the circular drive which is to the left of #9. You can see a line of tenant houses proceeding to the left of #10. To the right of this line of what were originally slave quarters is #11. McEachin-Little House (c. 1842) 709 Queen City. Across the street to the left of #11 is #12. Turner-McAlpin-Fellows House (c. 1840) 621 Queen City Avenue. #13. Jemison-Wilbourne House (c. 1870) 1904 7th Street has not been identified on this image but structures on "Union Street" are present where it should be located on this map. The same thing goes with #14. Palmer-Deal House (c. 1866) 1902 8th Street has not been identified on the image but should be among the structures pictured across the street from #7.Moody-Warner House.

An 1839 Description of Winter Weather in Mobile County:

"The difficulties attending a high and healthy state of cultivation here are much greater than can well be imagined by any novice One of our great difficulties is the extreme variableness of our winter months as an example I will give you the state of the thermometer for a few days during the month of March with the highest and lowest range during the same period 8th of March at 6 o clock in the morning 39 at 2 o clock same day 58 12th day 41 minimum 71 maximum 13th day 62 minimum 76 maximum on the 19th day a severe white frost on the 25th day 64 minimum 84 maximum lowest range during the month 34 highest 84. This was truly kept with the thermometer in the shade. From the above you will at once see it is perfectly impossible to keep the thermometer in the green house at a steady range for a week together I might almost say for twenty four hours. The thermometer one morning at sun rise out of doors will stand as low as 29 at 2 o clock same day will range as high as 60. Last February I knew the thermometer in the middle of the day as high as 78 in the shade two mornings after as high as 64 and might not be lower than 50 for three or four days. Then for four or five days it differs from extreme heat to extreme cold almost every six hours the gardener might go to bed and think all safe with the thermometer at 64 out of doors and every appearance of steady weather perhaps be tempted to leave his green house sashes down next morning by day light he actually finds it freezing. The above is a sketch of the winter difficulties."

https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Magazine_of_Horticulture_Botany_and/-EsWAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Gilbert+R.+Rotton%22&pg=PA249&printsec=frontcover

SUPER SOURCE!!!! Check out this first-person account of the April 1865 burning of Tuscaloosa written by Charles Wooster of Company G, 2nd Michigan Volunteer Cavalry, a 22-year-old native of Hillsdale County, Michigan, in a letter to his brother on June 25, 1865

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc1.cu01501160&view=1up&seq=189&q1=Murfreesboro

SUPER SOURCE!!!! Check out this first-person account of the April 1865 burning of Tuscaloosa written by Charles Wooster of Company G, 2nd Michigan Volunteer Cavalry, a 22-year-old native of Hillsdale County, Michigan, in a letter to his brother on June 25, 1865:

The Gen. decides to capture the guard at the bridge [over the Black Warrior, northwest of the city] alive, if possible, and for that purpose two volunteers are called for from Co. G.; myself and one other thinking we would try our hand, divest ourselves of all superfluous equipments which might impede our movements, leave our guns and each with a revolver in his hand and a negro to guide us, we start for the bridge, folowed by good support within hearing distance.

We strike the river first and then move cautiously down; being within about thirty feet from the entrance of the bridge, we hear the guard slowly walking out. As he steps into the light he looks down on us and quickly chalenges: “Who’s there?” “Friends!” I reply, but he couldn’t “see it,” and instantly fired; the ball passed through the crown of my hat, and he beat a hasty retreat through the bridge, folowed by our balls; as our support was up the bridge was cleared, and the man who first fired on us left mortally wounded near its center;—ther were 14 rebels in the bridge, in all. The regiment quickly pass through, and with the assistance of a guide take the rebel artillery—two guns—before they could get their horses harnessed. There was some pretty sharp firing, but we were so fortunate as to lose only two killed and some few wounded.

After our boys had got well in town the 6th Ky. band came up and played “[Ain’t I Glad to] Get out of The Wilderness” for the benefit of the Johnies; they were not slow in taking the hint and the next morning none were to be seen, except a few which we held as prisoners.

A wedding party was in the hight of its glory, when the Blue Coats rudely entered, arrested the bridegroom, who was a Capt. in the rebel army [Captain James S. Carpenter of Kentucky], and others of the gay cavaliers; the female part of the company [including the bride, Miss Emily Leach of Tuscaloosa] was in great terror—the scene had sadly and suddenly changed. I do believe it is a sin, and a disgrace to the Yankee nation, that such proceedings are tolerated.

As soon as the bridge was take[n] I was sent back to carry word of our success, and to get my gun, having done which I mounted my horse with the intention of returning to the regiment. As I was nearing the bridge at a brisk pace, about fifty dismounted men appeared, coming up on a cross street; taking them to be our own boys I kept on and only discovered my mistake when they were quite near me. An old chap who seemed to be their leader advanced a pace or two and the folowing coloquy ensued; in the meantime those about him kept edging their way towards me, with their guns in their hands, and in the dim Moonlight peering curiously at me.

Old Chap: What’s the news?

Myself: I understand there are a lot of Yankees out here a little way.

Old Chap: I suppose you are one of our men?

Myself: Certainly I am.

Old Chap: What road are they on?—

I don’t answer promptly, not knowing the names of the roads and thinking perhaps he would continue . . . [when] the report of a gun is heard at the bridge, they turn their heads, giving me an opportunity of taking a French Leave, which I of course was not slow in improving. The occasion of the guns being fired was that some of the Johnies, turning their attention from me, went towards the bridge; one of the [m] seeing a man standing there, thus accosted him: Oh guard! . . . why didn’t you answer me when I called you?”

… . Replied the guard—throw down that gun!

I’ll show you how I’ll throw it down! returned the reb, at the same time preparing to fire; but the Yank—for such it was—was to[o] quick for him—he dropped both his gun and himself.

During the night only part of the town was occupied by our troops; but as soon as daylight came the whole command was moved over and posted on the principal streets leading into the place, where they remained till the next morning [April 5]. In the interval all stores, government houses &c, were given up to indiscriminate plunder; but I heard of no private dwelling houses being disturbed. Nigger [s] of all sorts and sizes and poor whites could be -seen from morning till night carying away all manner of dry goods and provisions; salt, which was very scarce among the common people, and which could not be bought by them except with silver, was especially sought, and I think most of them obtained a supply. Safes were broke open by soldiers in search of money and valuables. Confederate scrip was flush and every nigger had his pockets stuffed full of it. I heard of one or [more] heavy hauls of gold being made, but such instances must have been very rare, for those having the precious metal took good care to hide it—knowing the prevailing passion of the Yankees.

Early on the morning of Apr. 5th the command was in motion, recrossed the river and burned the bridge, having previously burned the Military Institute [the University of Alabama], a large cotton factory, a foundery, two large tanneries, a hat factory &c. After seeing all these things were done, we marched fifteen miles to the [south] westward and camped for the night.

Melissa Dearing became the wife of Dr. W. S. Wyman, and Alice married Mr. George A. Searcy, son of Dr. Reuben Searcy, who was, at his death, president of the Merchants Bank and Trust Company of Tuskaloosa. At the preparatory schools and at college I was the intimate friend of T. Alex. Dearing, and all our families were intimate friends. Pleasant Dearing was blind, his eyes having been put out by a charge of powder flashed in his face by his brother James whilst playing in the large garret above the family residence. Peddy Dearing he was always called by his intimate friends. He had been given all the education that was, at that day, considered possible in the use of books with raised letters, and was also quite proficient in the use of his hands. I remember amongst other things seeing hair and clothes brushes of his man ufacture. T. Alexander made a splendid Confederate soldier, and surrendered with Lumsden's Battery, after the close of the war, somewhere between Gainesville and Mobile. I was at Tuskaloosa at the time trying to get clothing for members of the battery who were almost naked, having been detailed, and sent to Tuskaloosa a few weeks previously for that purpose. Alex., as my messmate, was paid my last year's moneys due me as a Confederate soldier, in Confederate money, most of which I still have on hand as a memento of those strenuous days. He died of consumption a few years after the end of the war.