An Artilleryman’s Diary–Jenkin Lloyd Jones

Huntsville, Sunday, May 8. On guard detail again. Would rather it was on some other day, as I wished to attend meeting. Was orderly of the day, easier than on post. Had to stay round headquarters during the day. Grazed horses in the afternoon near a negro meeting, which I attended. After an earnest discourse from an old gray-haired negro, and a prayer which would compare favorably with many a white man’s, several of the sisters “got happy”, which was truly amusing, and I could but laugh, although I should not have. Their exercise was composed mostly of chanting scraps of every hymn they ever heard, in a gay, dancing tune style, with all jerks and hops for variations. Poor ignorant souls. They greedily grasp at the most mysterious dogmas, as their judgment and reasoning faculties have never been developed or cultivated.