April 8, 1863, Savannah Republican (Georgia)
A correspondent of the Mobile Advertiser, writing from the camp of the Thirty-eighth Alabama Regiment, relates the following:
Some weeks ago, a young man came to camp and proposed to volunteer. He was accepted, there being nothing in his physical appearance to indicate the singular denouement which followed six weeks afterwards. While on drill he was recognized and claimed as a runaway slave. He enlisted by the name of Solomon Vernoy; but after his arrest owned up to be nick named Pieg, and being a runaway. He says that he has a boss, but that “by right” he is free. He says that his mother was a domesticated Indian, who was unlawfully sold into slavery, and run off from Kentucky. His looks do not indicate the African, and if he gets a good lawyer and sues for his “by rights,” there will be a pretty law suit, since the master will have to rebut the presumption of color by proof. He must, at least, admire the patriotism of Vernoy, or Pieg, as the case may be.