they can as to the policy of the Government with regard to the future status of the negro.  I have seen a crowd of blacks who were called up by their masters last saturday & told that now they were free & at liberty to go where they pleased, some of their masters made long speeches & I have no doubt but good & proper one to the blacks the poor creatures were so overcome that they could not (some of them) remember what was said by their masters after he told them that they were free.  Is it any wonder then that they should get up early sunday morning & put on their best & walk miles to see what they think is their deliverers, or that they should indulge in wild demonstrations of Joy, or that we as soldiers should allow them to enjoy the shades of our camp.  But no doubt hundreds of them feel gloomy to day they had formed such extravagant notions of liberty & to be arested to day by guards & sent out to the plantations, is more than they expected - There are thousands who have been brought here from other states so that there is a surplus of labor here & about all that their old masters can reasonably promise them this season is to clothe & feed them & their families as they had been acustomed to before.  I heard one man tell a great stout black fellow who six years ago was worth $1800 that if he thought he could do better & wished to he could go where he pleased
