"thousands of ladies and gentlemen went down to the wharf and demonstrated the most unequivocal evidence of respect for their memory of the deceased. I saw some thirty or thirty-five negroes, with mourning streamers upon their hats and arms, walk slowly and solemnly around the coffin and several of them, standing near the head of the pier, freely dropped tears for the hero whose remains were before them".

Joe, who were these black folks? Former slaves, people who knew Johnston before the war, or some of those elusive "black Confederates" from Shiloh? Did the General receive any further rites after reconstruction? Stan