“Rogers tried to explain the effects of the Emancipation Proclamation to the woman. “‘Well, you’ll have to fight your way out there before you can get that wench,’ she said. ‘Is this your child?’ I said as a flaxen haired boy came toward me. ‘Yes, he is, and what of it?'” Rogers told one of his soldiers to take the boy to the guard house and keep him there until the girl returned. The soldier “looked at me with a half frightened, half questioning expression on his black face, but when he saw I was in earnest his look changed to one of triumph, and grasping the little fellow by the arm he started off for the guard house before either mother or child could recover from their surprise. Then the ‘lady’ gave me a volley of abuse which I will not repeat, nor did I stop to hear the end of the tirade.”

Ta-Nehisi Coates recounts a story from the Civil War, post-Emancipation Proclamation, reminding us just what some people have fought and died for.