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GEORGE WASHINGTON FIELDS
thousands of cannon balls were piled. The yard was inclosed with an iron fence made of old army muskets with fixed bayonets. From the fort the ex-slaves spread themselves out along the strip of land which lay between [Hampton] and Mill Creek, better known as the town of Phoebus. They took possession of the land, which was at that time confiscated, and built thereupon brush huts; many gathered pieces of tin, old boards and almost any thing they could collect to shield them from the weather, which was quite mild – a case in which Providence seemed to have tempered the blast for the shorn sheep. Working for the Bartletts Fortunately for us, on the very day we landed at Old Point, [we met] a Mr. Bartlett, a farmer who owned a farm of many hundred acres about 12 miles from Hampton near the Halfway House, so called because it was halfway between Hampton and Yorktown. Mr. Bartlett, after looking many of the families and people over, came to where our family was seated on the wharf and began to talk to Madison Lewis, who had come with us all the way from slavery to freedom, about going out to his farm. He referred him to mother, she being the spokesman for the family in all matters concerning the welfare of the family. After talking the matter over for some time, an arrangement was perfected seemingly satisfactory to mother. Mother was to be the cook. Madison Lewis, who subsequently married my sister Matilda, was to be the stableman and work on the farm, and Cock Robin and his brother William were to assist him. Betty and Catherine were assigned no work, they being too small to do anything other than to eat. We were then escorted by Mr. Bartlett to a long-bodied wagon, in the bottom of which there was much straw. The wagon was drawn by two fine mules, Mr. Bartlett being the driver, and away we sped en route to our new home. As we drove through Hampton, we found the town in ruins, most of the houses having been burned to the ground and many partly burned [by the Rebels]. There were only three brick structures in the town, one being a private residence the walls of which had fallen in a heap upon the first floor, the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church had also been very much demolished, as was the county courthouse, and most of the records destroyed by fire. A few, however, were recovered when the bricks and other debris were cleared away preparatory to rebuilding, and are still preserved in the vault there under the head of re-recorded deed. These houses had been struck by shells while the town was being bombarded by the Yankee soldiers. All along the route from Hampton to our Bartlett