Amanuensis Monday: Joseph S. Tarkington's Southern Claims Commission Claim: Cross-Examination of Witness, Alfred Smith

When Joseph S. Tarkington filed Louisiana claim #12265 with the Southern Claims Commission, another of his witnesses was his former slave Alfred Smith. I do not know if Alfred was related to Joseph's other former slave who testified, Jack Smith. Alfred's cross-examination is transcribed below.

Cross-examined by the Commissioner - Witness answers as follows:

My name is Alfred Smith, I am 40 or thereabout. I live in New Orleans and am engaged as fire-man on a Mississippi river boat. I was born a slave of the claimant and lived with him until the end of the war. I do believe that the claimant always had been a strong Union man, during the war I have often heard him talk against the Confederacy and say he did not want anything to do with it and would not be mixed up with it. I have heard men threaten to whip the claimant and drive him out of the parish on account of his Union sentiments, and for a long time he could not go to town for fear of these threats being executed. The claimant and his wife often gave United States soldiers food, milk, &c. but he never gave the Confederates anything at all - they were too much against him. I used often to go to Franklin with the claimant and the people would beset him to join them in Secession and threaten to whip him if he did not, but he would always refuse and take no part at all in the fuss. One time I remember of they were going to cow-hide him because he would not join them and had he stood they would have whiped [sic] him, he ran away manfully jumped into his skiff and went home. I feel sure that the claimant never could prove loyalty to the Confederacy if the same had been maintained as a separate government because of the reasons I have already expressed. I have no interest in this claim at all.                   
                                                               his
                                                    Alfred  X  Smith
                                                             mark

 Sworn before me this 25th day of June 1872
                                              Wm. Grant
                                              Special Comm

Cross-examination of witness, Alfred Smith, 25 June 1872; Orleans Parish, Louisiana claim no. 12265 (Joseph S. Tarkington), Allowed Case Files, Southern Claims Commission, 1871-1880; Settled Accounts and Claims, Third Auditor. Records of the Treasury Department Accounting Officers, Record Group 217. National Archives, Washington, DC. Available from Fold3.

Cross-examination of witness, Alfred Smith, 25 June 1872; Orleans Parish, Louisiana claim no. 12265 (Joseph S. Tarkington), Allowed Case Files, Southern Claims Commission, 1871-1880; Settled Accounts and Claims, Third Auditor. Records of the Treasury Department Accounting Officers, Record Group 217. National Archives, Washington, DC. Available from Fold3.

Cross-examination of witness, Alfred Smith, 25 June 1872; Orleans Parish, Louisiana claim no. 12265 (Joseph S. Tarkington), Allowed Case Files, Southern Claims Commission, 1871-1880; Settled Accounts and Claims, Third Auditor. Records of the Treasury Department Accounting Officers, Record Group 217. National Archives, Washington, DC. Available from Fold3.