Old Josh and the Civil War Days (Chapater Eight of, "The Last Plantation")

Old Josh and the Civil War Days
(With Silas and Jordon, from Ozark, Alabama)

Part of “The “Last Plantation,”
A mixed chapter No: 8


Silas and Jordon Jefferson
Of Ozark, Alabama


(Background) Old Josh, Josh Washington Jefferson (Born 1853- 1903) worked for the Abernathy family for many years, and his son works for him now, Josh Jefferson Jr. ((Born 1890) (died 1972: 82-years old)) but the family dates back farther. His family dates back to 1810, and beyond, and when I say beyond, it means Josh, the old Josh, came from Africa, because, Charles Hightower, of the plantation in Ozark, Alabama found him in New Orleans during a flood, he and his mother got separated, she was supposed to have died in the flood. How long exactly he was here fore 1810, I can’t rightfully tell you, but when Charles Hightower (the same Hightower family that lives in New Orleans, by the name of Jason Hightower, married to Betty Hightower, great grand child to Charles Hightower, they sold the plantation and moved to the city as most folks did in and around the time of the Civil War. In any case, Josh Washington Jefferson’s father was Silas Jefferson, whose brother; younger brother was Jason, who worked at the Ozark’s main grocery story during those far-off days. When Charles Nightgown was in New Orleans, back in 1810, he found little Josh, ten-years old, wandering about, looking for his mother, and they could not find her, folks implied she was dead, among many dead, and so Hightower took the boy to his plantation, back to Ozark, Alabama.
So Josh, who worked for the Abernathy family was well acquainted with plantation work, although he left the plantation sometime in the 1920s, to wonder about in New Orleans, and through the Hightower family there, he got work in North Carolina, as you can see, for the Abernathy family.

Langdon Abernathy often listened to his father talk about his grandfather, who was in WWI, died in 1947, a hero of sorts, but so was the old Josh, the one from the Civil War days, and I suppose that helped him decided later on in life that he would be a soldier, and he would end up being a Corporal in the United States Army, in Vietnam, instead of going onto College, Harvard, as his mother Caroline wants him to.
One night, while sitting out in the back area of the plantation, by Old Josh’s shanty, he told the following story, or stories, stories his father Silas told him, Langdon was sitting on Josh’s wooden steps leading up onto the wooden floorboard of an outside porch, Josh drinking some moonshine, a pipe in his mouth, Amos from the Stanley and Minnie Mae from the Wallace Plantations were there also, it is 1965, Langdon is 16-yeaqs old, and Minnie Mae has come to work for the Abernathy family on a permanent bases (there has been some drastic changes to the plantation and Wallace family):

“Son,” said Old Josh W.J., my pa, Silas, he told me his pa,
Old Josh, is what they called him, like you do for me, and he say, back in 1864, his pa, Old Josh W.J., had to work for da Army for six months, ole man Hightower, Charles Hightower done leant him out, he say he had no choice, and he up in went to Vicksburg of all the darn places the Army done takes you to. He say he wes working as a mule driver, with da 32d Ohio folks, company E, for a spell, and me pa say, when his pa come back he raised his voice so high and he made new recorded involving profanity, he say it was normal for those guys, and habit forming, dat he raise his voice so high he done scared the birds in da tree to flight. He said once he met a man who guarded prisoners, and he told them, ‘he’d kill the damned white-livered, red-headed, son of a b… ‘and then later on hit the corporal for calling him the same back. It a fever it is inside of you, pa say, thqat took pa Josh a year to get his language back to normal. But dhat wes da way it wes back in those days, so may pa say to me, that his pa say to him.
“Matter of fact, heres another tale my pa Silas done told me: back in those days, men went to war, women stayed home, and nursed the wounded, and when dhey done come home, they did the romance thing, and it was between men and women, no other way, but there were a few exceptions, so pa say, one being, some women dressed up like men, put on the uniform, combatants, disguised like men: many passionate encounters pa say during dhe war were between men and other men too. So you see there was this homosexual activity and pa say no one was disciplined for it, because no one ever knew what to call it, the term, homosexual didn’t exist until after the war. So pa say, dhat old Josh say, what can you say? He jes close’ his eyes he tell me, and go on to sleep and pray no one of those kind of folk come to him, cus then he goin’ fight, and they hang him.
“Pa say, he saw a many of dhe high ranking officers with women in those there tents they done lived in, dressed like men, so they could have what they want when they wanted it. Generals mostly; matter-of-fact, right here in North Carolina, by Monroe’s Cross Roads, General Kilpatrick escaped with only his pants on one day, during a battle, and his gal Alice, was said to have saved dhe flag. But it was really not true, a soldier named Miller held the flag pa say, he saw it wit’ his own eyes. So you see son, the birds and da bees, they were busy back then.
“Pa told me he saw so much prostitution, so much venereal disease and alcoholism, dhat he had nightmares he had to go to church and denounce the evils of dhe skin trade before he go-on wit’ dhe mules, and he say, when he went to church there were more prostitutes there than Methodists, and they were not there to ask for forgiveness of sin but to lure the soldier out after he done went to church, and he say the soldier he gone to church not for church sake, but to get out of KP, or kitchen duty.
“Anyhow son, dhat there is all dhe story for da night, I sure hope if yous a goin’ to be a soldier, and go on to war, you don’t forget what my pa tell me, and be a good soldier. Now its time you git-on to bed, your pa goin’ git his dander up if you don’t.”