To the People of
It becomes my duty, under the circumstances,
to lay before the Citizens of Alabama and the
balance of the Confederate States, my acts during
the war since it commenced to the present time
which I will do frankly and honestly. In the
first place I raised a company and got the uniform
at considerable expense. I boarded a good part of
the company at my own expense, but my compa¬
ny was broken up by divisions among themselves.
If my company had been received I would have
now been in the service. After my company was
broken up I went in with Col D. C. Humphreys
and assisted him in raising a Brigade arid spent
the most ot the summ r of 1861 in that business.
We went into camp at Decatur, and staid there
four or five weeks, and paid our own expenses.—•.
The Brigade was nGt received by the Secretary
Of War. I was the first man on the ground, I
went several days before the companies came in,
and had the ground prepared for ihaui. When
Fort Donelson fell, and our army had to retreat
to Mississippi a large quantity of commissary
stores were seat to this place, I assisted Col J C
Bradley in caking eare of them and shipping them
to the army. When the army was here I tender¬
ed them my house for a hospital, which they ae
cepted. Upwards of two hundred at one time oc¬
cupied it, and when companies were coming in and
bad no tents to shelter them from the inclemency
of the weather, 1 gave them quarters in my house
—and I have at all times contributed to soldiers
and their families as much as I was able. When
the Federals came to Huntsville they took pos¬
session of part of my house for offices, and it
was surrounded by the guards day and night, by
which I got acquainted with the larger part of
their officers and they treated me and my family
very well, and I had no choice but to treat them
civilly, as I was in their power. While they were
here the cottoa market opened and I night I
saw that the cotton would be taken by rce if it
was not sold. I was in debt, and my property
had been sold at great sacrifice, and the tsrne for
redeeming it was running out, and I went into
the cotton trade, paying a license as a broker un¬
der the law of Alabama. I bought and sold it,
but not to any one connected with the army.—
Had I not have done that, I would have been
turned out of house and home without money,
rich friends or kindred, with an old mother nine¬
ty-odd years old, a sick wile and an infant grand
child. At the time I did not know there was any
law against buying and selling cotton, for we
could hear nothing from Richmond. As soon as
I found it out I stopped ana went into furnishing
provisions for the people in this place. I brought
a great quantity ot provisions of all kinds and sold
them as low as any one in the place. I bought
three slaves, also, for my own use, which I would
not have done if I wanted to join the Federals. I
have sold §alt at from $20 to $75 per bbL, and
for all kinds of money. I sold Salt to 'soldiers
and their families at the same price in currenc, I
did to others in gold, which I am able to prove ;
and I sold to some families without money. 1
can show my bills of the salt I have sold and if
any man will say that it is more than the com
mon price I will refund. The most of the salt I
sold I sold on commission, for which 1 got t o
per cent and I had to follow instructions. I
have been trying to do the best I could for the
people. I tried to get into the service and was
defeated, I then thought I would make myself as
useful as I could. I am a Southern man, born
and raised, with all the feelings of a Southern
man, and never was North of Mason and D ne¬
on's line in my life, and not I must be hunted
down by a man that has never done any tiling
that I know of to help the war, but a grea leal
to bring it on. I mean J. W. Oiay. b ■ mas
tried to create all the prejudice he could against
me, by publishing my arrest, and has stated
things which I am able to prove are not true,
and hold myself responsible for what I say in any
way. Now, John W Clay, what have you done
for the Confederacy ? Have you fed any ot the
soldier's families? have you presented them with
any bacon ? I have done so. Have you furnish¬
ed them salt ? I have for money and without
money. Have you thrown open your doors and
invited the hungry soldier to come in ? Have you
given one a pair of shoes, or stockings, or clo hes
iNortii Alabama!
of any kind? I have. And you recollect that
when you was out of salt, and I divided with you, I
sent you a half bushel and neither .charged or re¬
ceived pay. Now, tell the people what you have
done si nee the war broke out, and let the people
know who has done the most. When the Fed¬
erals left here tbey took out of my house 149
barrels of Flour, and 26,224 lbs of Baeon and
burnt it up before my eyes, and hundreds of oth¬
ers saw it. Since that time I have never been
inside ot their lines but once, and then I went at
the request of Capt Hambrick and Capt Gurley,
to try and get out of the penitentiary Alfred
Hambrick, Ira Cobb and Parson Driskell. In
all my social relations with the Federals my ob¬
ject was to try and be as useful to the citizens
as I could.
Of all the Bacon, Flour and Salt the Federals
took from me I hive never received one cent,
and, if I had been such a fevorite as Mr. Clay
tries to make me out, they certainly would n t
have destroyed my property as they did without
paying me for it. Mr. Clay sa^s, in his .paper of
31st December, that there was nothing during
the war that caused more general surprise here
than the release of myself. I laid the facts be¬
fore Gen. Bragg, with all my acts since the com¬
mencement of this war until the present time,
and, alter waiting four days, to give them time to
look into them carefully, I was discharged, and
they gave me a passport to eorne on the cars with
my servant, when no one was allowed to travel on
the cars unless he had a pass from Gen. Bragg,
as troops were moving to Mississippi. I ca ne
with Gen. Stevenson's Brigade as far as Steven-
spn. As I have stated befor -, when the Federals
came heve they took possession of my house, my
family was living in the house and was not able
to get out, and I had to treat them kindly in self
defense. The only weapon I ha.i to fight them
with was kindness. We were powerless and had
nothing to defend ourselves, and I thought I
would make the best 1 could out of it, and do the
best I could for the people as well as myself,
which I did do in many cases, and thought I was
doing for the best and I stopped at nothing I
could do when I saw any man in difficulty. I
thought I would be a,pplauded by the peopla, but,
instead of that, I am accused by Mr. Clay of be¬
ing disloyal. In several instances I came very
near being mobbed by the s ildiers by going into
camps to get out negroes that belonged to citi¬
zens. A few days before they left I went with
Mrs. J. H. Hobbs, Mrs. Joseph Morris and Miss
Ca npbell to get some of their negroes, and the
s dd .ers came out and threw roeks at me, and it
w is all I could do to save myself. Had it not
been for some of thsir officers I never would have
got out alive, and ti think that I could have any
sympathy with such men as tried to take my life
is too much for belief, particularly of one who
was born and raise 1 in the South. To prove the
confidence I have in the South I have bought
several slaves, as I have stated above; since the
Federals left here. All the property I have is in
the South, and I am willing to sacrifice my life,
property, and all I have for the Southern Insti¬
tutions. I have served three campaigns, and am
willing to do all I can for my country and coun¬
try's cause. I am now 53 years old and if you
will go, Mr. Glav, I will go. You seem to think
it is a light job, as you think $11 per month
enough (or the soldiers. Now, John, let us try
it, and you will find it not as light a job as you
imagine. To think of a man sitting at home by
his fire side, sleeping upon feather beds, and
downy pillows, while the poor soldiers are march¬
ing through mud and water, with their knapsaeks
upon their backs, and their muskets on their
shoulders, sleeping on the ground, with nothing
but the canopy to cover them, aad then say $11
per month is enough, you ought to blush, when
you see a soldier, with shame. That is one rea¬
son I sent your paper back when you sent it to
me, by your boy, it you thought I was disloyal
why did you send me your paper? and, when I
refused to take it, then yoa took it for granted
that I was disloyal. If that is the rule, John, I
suppose you will find a great many disloyal men
in this county and in this town.
JAMES HICKMAN.
Huntsville, Ala., Jan. 3rd, 1863.