Sim Younger related that he attended Oberlin College, and graduated from there in 1870. He did not see his mother from the time he was five years old until he was the age of 21. When comment was made that he did not use Negro dialect, Sim explained, saying:
"That is due to my early training. Delia Sheppard gave me excellent training, and I remember everything she told me, even when I was a very little boy.
"I will always remember one thing she told me," he continued, fondly reminiscent. "I was just a little boy and she said, ’Sim, if, when visiting, you find a pin on the floor, put it up and call attention to it. It does not belong to you.’
"Yes, ma’am," he continued, "I was born in slavery and I enlisted in the Union Army, January 1, 1864, at Oberlin, Ohio, and according to the National Tribune, I was one of the youngest soldiers in the ranks.
"I was present at the battle of Petersburg, Virginia, July 30, 1864; one of the disasters to the Northern forces of the war, and present on June 15, 1864, at the initiatory battle of Deep Bottom, and also at Cold Harbor.
"I was in the Ninth Army Corps, under Burnside, and was transferred around, in front of Richmond, Virginia.
"General Butler went down to Fort Fisher and failed, which was the last open port of the Confederacy. Another expedition was organized and General Terry given command. We embarked on the night of December 31, 1864; landed the morning of January 13, 1865, on the peninsula. On the night of January 15, 1865, we captured Fort Fisher.
"We had a terrible, terrible time landing! There was an awful storm! I was told to jump overboard, and oh my! I swallowed a good deal of the Atlantic!"
He sat still a moment, living over in memory the thrilling events of that night at Fort Fisher, then, saddened by the pageant of the past evoked from memory’s storehouse, he said:
"I want to tell you of one of the tragic things that happened during the war, and I was there and saw it.
"It was at the Southside railroad, at Petersburg, on September 27, 1865. I was put on picket duty. The ’Rebs’ had built a fire and the wind was driving it toward us. They began to holler and cheer, very happy over the fact.
"All at once we could hear someone coming toward us. The pickets opened fire on what they thought were ’Rebs’, and found out to their distress that it was a bunch of recruits from our own lines. Many were killed."