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The Negro as a Soldier.
There was in our regiment a very young recruit, named Sam Roberts, of whom Trowbridge used to tell this story.

Early in the war Trowbridge had been once sent to Amelia Island with a squad of men, under direction of Commodore Goldsborough, to remove the negroes from the island.

As the officers stood on the beach, talking to some of the older freedmen, they saw this urchin peeping at them from front and rear in a scrutinizing way, for which his father at last called him to account, as thus:-- "Hi! Sammy, what you's doin', chile ?" "Daddy," said the inquisitive youth, "don't you know mas'r tell us Yankee hab tail?
I don't see no tail, daddy!" There were many who went to Port Royal during the war, in civil or military positions, whose previous impressions of the colored race were about as intelligent as Sam's view of themselves.

But, for once, I had always had so much to do with fugitive slaves, and had studied the whole subject with such interest, that I found not much to learn or unlearn as to this one point.