Gabr'l Blow Sof': Sumter County, Alabama Slave Narratives

Cush was a mixture of corn meal, water, and bacon grease cooked over an open fire by Confederate soldiers. That the editors have taken this title for the book indicates the emotional impact of Sprott's Civil War memoirs. Not only do we march and eat this mixture with Sprott, but we witness with him the first execution of Confederate deserters, the bewilderment and frustration of battling infantrymen with what they considered the inane orders from above, the bravery -- and the foolhardiness -- that war inevitably brings. This memoir follows the Sumter regiment from its first "training" sessions to its duty in Mobile near the war's end.