2.
So we do pretty well for a year or tw~ and we keep up our tradin‘ trips to Co1umbi~, which ‘counts for me and Ben. Lyles, n~r oousir. ‘bout my age, comm1 to Columbia on February 16 ‚ 1868 ~ We sold out and stayed all night. at the home of Ben‘s uncle. He had u~ do some tasks ‘bout his home on Lincoln Street the next day and it was way in the day befo ‚ we start home. ~e walk north on what was knov~ then as the Winneboro road ?tjl we come to Broad ~ road, and we take it. There was One or two farm houses north of Eln~vood Street on the V~jnnsboro road at that time and only one house on Broad River road, the farm house of Mr. Coogler, which is still standint ~ There was a big woodsl~dat the forks of the Winnsboro road and Broad River ±oad.

	ttAfter we walk tlong the Broad River road,what seem tè us for a quarter of a mile, we see four or five old men standin‘ ~ the left side of the road wavint a white flag. We walks out in the woods on the right side opposite and watches. Soon we see what seem lak a thousand men on hoe ses coiain‘ briskly ‚ long • The men keep wavin‘ the white flag • After many had passed, or~big bearded maxi rein up his hoes end speak with the men W5,Vjflt the white flag. They tell the soldier there am no ‘Rebel soldier1 in Colunbia and the blue-clad army am welcome; beggint them to treat the old folks, women and children, well. The Yankee soldier set straight and solemn on his hoes, and when the old men finish and hand him a paper, he salute and tell them, ~ Your mes sage will be laid ‘ General ~hern~n‘.

	y “All this time the ground am shakin‘ fromthe roar of big guns ‘cross the river. Ben and me run thru the woods to our footlog and see thousands still comiri‘ into Columbia, all ‘long. We get ‘fraid and stayed in the woods ‘tu we get out of sight of the soldiers. But we ain‘t got far over the top of the hill ‘tu we come face to face with more men on hosses. One