Chamberlin described slaves in northern Mississippi in the autumn of 1862. One of them informed the Union soldiers, "Massa tole us dat you all Yankees at Corinth would make we 'uns work on de big forts tell we died, an' den give us some beef on a cracker, an' throw in a hole alive an' bury us!" Why did he come to the Union lines then, asked the Federals. "Oh, we knowed massa lied!" came the reply.

—Gary W. Gallagher, The Union War