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Stuart Brinkman
Dr. Wells
HIST 4450
December 7, 2013
Contraband
The bravery portrayed on bloody battlefield’s captured the determination of African
Americans and their contributions to the victory of the Union during the Civil War. The bravery
portrayed by African Americans during the war derived after the passing of The Confiscation
Acts and the Emancipation Proclamation. Prior to 1863 and the passing of the Emancipation
Proclamation southern slaves generated strategies in escaping from their southern plantations to
join Union lines. The first Confiscation Act required Union soldiers to return fugitive slaves that
escaped from southern plantations to their masters. African Americans continued to escape from
southern plantations and navigated their way across Union lines. Union soldiers accepted African
Americans into their camps and a majority of Generals denied return to their masters. The
Second Confiscation Act permitted African Americans to remain at Union camps thus abolishing
the fear of returning to their masters. As the Union embarked on multiple defeats and a decrease
in soldiers, the Union passed the Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation
announced freedom to all southern slaves that crossed Union lines and the acceptance of African
Americans in the Union Army. The Union relied on the passing of the Confiscation Acts and the
Emancipation Proclamation that fostered African Americans enrollment in the Navy and Army,
and efforts of women in their contributions to a Union victory in the Civil War.
Prior to the passing of the first Confiscation Act, African Americans continuously fled
their southern plantations across to Union lines in anticipation to contribute to the war effort and
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freedom. In the first year of the Civil War, a majority of Union Generals denied admission of
African Americans and unremittingly returned the slaves back to their owners. The book, Black
Union Soldiers in the Civil War by Hondon B. Hargrove, clarifies the number of African
Americans crossing Union lines continued to increase:
Hundreds of slaves began to cross over Union lines, and right behind them, in many
instances, came the slaveowners seeking the return of their property. No clear
government policy had been formulated, and so the field commanders were forced to
make their own decisions as to the procedure they were to follow in dealing with fugitive
slaves.1
With no visible government policy, authority arose to field commanders on whether southern
slaves remained in Union camps or returned to their owners. The decision of releasing southern
slaves rested in the hands of the field commander.
The first field commander to accept southern slaves into the military effort entailed
General Benjamin A. Butler. Hondon B. Hargrove explains General Butler refused to return a
fugitive slave while commanding troops at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, in May 1861:
General Butler refused to return them, declaring to the enemy officer: I shall hold these
Negros as Contraband of war, since they are engaged in the construction of your battery
and are claimed as your property.2
General Butler, the first General to allow southern slaves into his camp, also established the term
Contraband. The term Contraband consisted of the capturing of enemies possessions for the
support of the Union military. General Butler infused stability of African Americans within his
1
Hondon B. Hargrove, Black Union Soldiers in the Civil War (Jefferson, North Carolina, and London: McFarland &
Company, Inc., 1988), 12.
2
Hargrove, Black Union Soldiers in the Civil War, 13.
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camp. The nonexistence of a government police declared Union field commanders in control of
the acceptance of southern slaves.
The First Confiscation Act passed on August 8, 1861, affirming the acceptance of
detaining property utilized by Confederate military services. The First Confiscation Act
permitted southern slaves to contribute to the war effort in the means of labor but banned the
participation in combat. Hondon B. Hargrove describes the meaning of the First Confiscation
Act:
On August 8, 1861, Congress passed a Confiscation Act authorizing the seizure of all
property used in aid of the rebellion, including slaves. It applied only to slaves who had
actually worked on Confederate military fortifications and the like. It did not free them,
however.3
The Confiscation Act closely defined the seizure of slaves that contributed to the Confederate
military. The Confiscation Act banned southern slaves’ contribution in the battlefield but could
prospered as laborers.
The First Confiscation Act initiated a necessary procedure in the establishment of African
Americans contributing to the war effort, but the act remained incomplete. Union soldiers
continued to encounter dilemmas involving fugitive slaves escaping their southern plantations,
with their masters trailing behind. A Union soldier, Benjamin Bennitt, describes a master’s
attempt in claiming his slave:
The master claimed that the captain should deliver up his slave. This the captain, as an
officer of the army declined doing, but told Burnett he would send them both under guard
to General Patrick.4
3
Hargrove, Black Union Soldiers in the Civil War, 13.
Diary, May 22, 1862, box 2, Folder 2, Coll. 8896, Benjamin Bennitt Family papers 1854- 1979, American Heritage
Center, University of Wyoming.
4
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The captain perceived Contraband as a necessity for Union military aid. The Captain
distinguished the fugitive slave as a plantation worker and not Contraband. The First
Confiscation Act asserts the assistance of Contraband to the Union military, only if the southern
property contributed to the Confederate military.
The Second Confiscation Act proceeded to be a necessary procedure for the Union
military. The Second Confiscation Act allowed African Americans to serve in the Union
military as soldiers only when the President considered it necessary. William A. Dobak, the
author of Freedom by the Sword: The U.S. Colored Troops, 1862-1867 describes the Second
Confiscation Act passed on 17 July 1862:
The Second Confiscation Act prescribed death or imprisonment for every person who
shall hereafter commit the crime of treason against the United States… and all his slaves,
if any, shall be declared and made free. The act further declared that any slaves who
escaped to Union lines or were captured by advancing federal armies shall be forever free
of their servitude, and not again held as slaves. Moreover, the president might employ as
many persons of African descent as he deems necessary for the suppression of this
rebellion, and for this purpose he may organize and use them in such manner as he may
judge best for the public welfare.5
The Union military opened arms to all African Americans including slaves that worked on
southern plantations. President Lincoln, if deemed necessary, may organize African American
troops and enlistment into the military service. In 1862, the U.S. Navy provided the only
military branch that accepted African Americans.
African Americans enrolled in the U.S Navy contributed significantly to the Union
military blockade. The Union military in 1862, endured in numerous defeats resulting in a
5
William A. Dobak, Freedom by the Sword: The U.S. Colored Troops, 1862-1867 (Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., 2013),
31.
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decrease of soldiers battling for independence on the battlefield. The United States military
suffered a significant amount of defeats and drastically needed the enrollment of Union soldiers
for a victory in the Civil War. John David Smith, author of the Black Soldiers in Blue: African
American Troops in the Civil War explains the need to employ Union soldiers and the
continuous denial of Congress on arming African Americans:
Military necessity, the need to fill depleted units, the need to employ the 500,000 to
700,000 fugitive slaves who had entered Federal lines, and the need to deprive the
Confederates of vital manpower convinced Lincoln in late 1862 that the time was right to
free the Confederacy’s slaves and to arm blacks, North and South.6
In 1862, Congress continued to deny African Americans into the U.S. Army but after the
significant outcry for soldiers the solution seemed relevant. The solution for a Union victory
contained the enlisting of African Americans into the United States Army.
The Emancipation Proclamation marked the day in American history accepting African
Americans into the United States military. The arming of African Americans into the United
States Army impressively benefited the Union military. Envisioning Emancipation: Black
Americans and the End of Slavery by Deborah Willis and Barbara Krauthamer, describes the
Emancipation Proclamation:
It addressed only the liberation of slaves in Confederate states not yet under Union
control and thus excluding areas already under Union command as well as the four loyal
slave states of Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, and Missouri; and it did not immediately
grant freedom to any enslaved but linked it to Union victory.7
6
John David Smith, Black Soldiers in Blue: African American Troops in the Civil War Era (Chapel Hill and London: The
University of North Carolina Press, 2002), 23.
7
Deborah Willis and Barbara Krauthamer, Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2013), 60-61.
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Confederate slaves received no freedom for crossing Union lines but the United States
government issued the Emancipation Proclamation remotely to replenish the depleted units in the
U.S. military.
The Emancipation Proclamation provided a lethal weapon for Union military services.
The Emancipation Proclamation lacked African American freedom but served as a weapon in the
Union victory of the Civil War. Bruce Levine, author of the Confederate Emancipation:
Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves during the Civil War describes the effect the
Emancipation Proclamation created for the South:
One federal official asked some Confederate prisoners of war what effect the Presidents
Proclamation of Freedom had produced in the South. They responded that it had played
hell with them.8
The Presidents intentions of passing the Emancipation Proclamation intended to create barriers
for the Confederate military correlating with a decrease in military attacks. The granting of
freedom for African Americans left southern plantations unattended decreasing the food
production and income of Southerners.
The Emancipation Proclamation resulted in resolving the war question concerning the
enrolment of troops in the United States Army. A variety of historian’s constructed the
conclusion that Congress passed the Emancipation Proclamation not as a grant for freedom but
as an answer to the military issue. Historian Bruce Catton describes the purpose of the
Emancipation Proclamation:
8
Bruce Levine, Confederate Emancipation: Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves during the Civil War (New York:
Oxford University Press, Inc., 2006), 69.
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Emancipation we can see that it was actually handled most effectively; that is, it was a
vital step in the conduct of the war, taken for military reasons.9
The Emancipation Proclamation provided a vital step in contributing to the Union victory in the
Civil War. In 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation declared the enlistment of African
Americans into the United States Army.
African Americans enlisted in the United States Navy prior to the passing of the
Emancipation Proclamation. Gideon Welles blockade anticipated the early enlistment of African
Americans into the United States Navy. Gideon Welles blockade required numerous Navy
soldiers during the process of blockading all vessels affiliated with the south. Blockaders,
Refugees, & Contrabands: Civil War on Florida’s Gulf Coast, 1861-1865, by George E. Buker
portrays the shortage of Navy military men in the East Gulf Blockading Squadron:
In July 1862, Secretary Welles instructed the East Gulf Blockading Squadron to enlist as
many contraband as possible because Northern enlistments had not kept pace with the
needs of the navy. The secretary had no more men available to send to the Gulf
squadron.10
The shortage of Navy soldiers in the East Gulf Blockading Squadron prompted the enlistment of
African Americans. During the course of the Civil War, African Americans performed a variety
of occupations, for the United States Navy.
African Americans contributed to the United States Navy immensely in occupations
including pilots, landsmen, coalheavers, firemen, and cooks. The employment of African
Americans in the United States Navy exceedingly supported the blockade which provided as a
9
Notes, No date, box 1, folder Civil War Materials 1834-1875, Coll. 4032, Bruce Catton as the , 1834- 1875, Bruce
Catton Collection, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
10
George E. Buker, Blockaders, Refugees, & Contrabands: Civil War on Florida’s Gulf Coast, 1861-1865 (Tuscaloosa
and London: The University of Alabama Press, 1993), 44.
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major element in the Union victory of the Civil War. In “Count Them Too: African Americans
from Delaware and the United States Civil War Navy, 1861-1865,” by Sellano L. Simmons
describes the employment of African Americans in the Union Navy and their significant
contribution to the war effort:
Although the categories they served in were by no means the most prestigious, as far as
the Navy is concerned, these landsmen, coalheavers, firemen, cooks, and others
contributed immensely to the Union victory.11
The involvement of African Americans immensely attributed to the Union victory even though
the roles Contraband employed in consisted of menial positions. African Americans basic
occupations subsidized the United States Navy by extending the enrollment of military personal
and fulfilling undesirable positions.
African Americans enlistment into menial occupations provided as a necessity in
fulfilling undesirable Navy positions. African Americans contributed to the war effort on
prominent Navy ships as deck hands and cooks. James Bertenshaw, a Navy sailor. explains the
occupations of Negros:
The deck hands are merely all niggers and all the cook are it looks rather odd you I doant
[sic] like niggers we are now at this moment.12
James Bertenshaw recognized the magnitude of Negro enlistment during the Civil War despite
his displeasure of the African American race. African Americans that served in the Navy
immensely contributed to the Union victory in the Civil War.
11
Sellano L. Simmons, “Count Them Too: African Americans from Delaware and the United States Civil War Navy,
1861-1865,” The Journal of Negro History 85 (2000): 190.
12
Diary, April 8, 1884, box 1, folder 4, Coll. 07269, James Bertenshaw family Letters, American Heritage Center,
University of Wyoming.
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African Americans arrived across Union lines from a variety of southern states to acclaim
their freedom and exploit their commitment to the United States Navy. Bluejackets and
Contrabands: African Americans and the Union Navy by Barbara Brooks Tomblin, explains the
significant amount of African Americans employed into the United States Navy:
According to Howard University’s Black Sailors Project, 18,000 African American men
(and 11 women) served in the Union Navy over the course of the Civil War.13
Over the course of the Civil War 18,000 African Americans risked their lives as pilots,
landsmen, coalheavers, firemen, and cooks in serving for the Union Navy.
The passing of the Emancipation Proclamation marked the beginning of the enlistment of
black regiments in the United States Army. Generals of the colored troops recruited African
Americans from Contraband camps located throughout Union territory. The brutal battles
portrayed during the Civil War embraced the substantial bravery and honor of African
Americans. John David Smith expresses the bravery presented by two African Americans in the
3rd United States Colored Cavalry:
Describing an episode in which two of his black sergeants risked their lives by carrying
dispatches through enemy controlled territory in the guise of slaves, Main termed the men
young, brave and quick witted.14
The determination portrayed by the two African Americans resembled their tremendous bravery
and quick wittedness while in the line of battle. Officer Edward M. Main correlates African
Americans superb work ethic, honor, and bravery to the respect obtained from white soldiers and
Generals.
13
Barbara Brooks Tomblin, Bluejackets and Contrabands: African Americans and the Union Navy (Lexington: The
University of Kentucky, 2009), 189.
14
Smith, Black Soldiers in Blue, 282.
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African American soldiers in the United States Army considerably influenced the Union
victory during the Civil War. African Americans contributed to the bloodshed produced from
the horrific battlefields. African American troops acquired major accomplishments ranging from
the participation in major battles including Appomattox and one of the first regiments to enter
Richmond. Hondon B. Hargrove describes the involvement of the Thirty-first U.S.C.T
regiments in major battles:
The Thirty-first U.S.C.T. May 18, 1864, which also saw heavy fighting in Virginia. The
Thirty-first was involved in most of the fighting in the battles for Petersburg, the Crater
Mine Explosion, and the pursuit and surrender of General Lee at Appomattox.15
The Thirty-first U.S.C.T. participated in brutal battles and contributed to General Lee’s surrender
at the battle of Appomattox. John Davis Smith explains African American enlistment into The
United States Army consisted of “120 infantry regiments, twelve heavy artillery units, ten
batteries of light artillery, and seven cavalry regiments.”16 African Americans significantly
fortified the core of the Union Army by supplying a sufficient amount of soldiers.
While African American men contributed to the military, Negro women managed the
farms and plantations. The occupation of Negro women consisted of maintaining crops that
produced food and cotton. Dear Ones at Home: Letters from Contraband Camps edited by
Henry L. Swint shows a letter written from Martin Brimmer to Miss Chase emphasizing the
contributions of African women to the Union military:
15
16
Hargrove, Black Union Soldiers in the Civil War, 82.
Smith, Black Soldiers in Blue, 277.
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The greatest suffering & that which it is most important to relieve must be among the
women. It is suggest that the best mode of aiding the men is by agricultural implements
sold cheap or given to them.17
Martin Brimmer describes the overwork of Negro women and the extensive labor required to
produce crops for the Union military. African American women provided food and cotton for
Union soldiers, Contraband, and their families. African women vigorously labored for the
survival of themselves, other Contraband, and families fighting in the Civil War.
African American women provided for the sick, injured, and wounded Union soldiers.
African American women performed medical services at Union camps, hospitals, and all black
hospitals. “Seldom Thanked, Never Praised, and Scarcely Recognized: Gender and Racism in
Civil War Hospitals” by Jane E. Schultz explains during the Civil War “2,069 black women who
served alongside white women in Union camps and hospitals.”18 African American women
typically performed medical services treating smallpox, infections, and other undesirable tasks.
African American women contributed to the Civil War as spies for the Union military.
Harriet Tubman, an African American woman posed as a spy for the Union military during the
Civil War. Tubman’s role model status influenced other women to contribute to Union aid in
posing as spies. Women posed as illiterate slaves and listened to their conversations containing
information on their next raid and military positions. Graham Russell Hodges describes a spy
named Mary Elizabeth Bowser:
17
Henry L. Swint, Dear Ones at Home: Letters from Contraband Camps selected (Vanderbilt University Press
Nashville, 1966), 163.
18
Jane E. Schultz, “Seldom Thanked, Never Praised, and Scarcely Recognized: Gender and Racism in Civil War
Hospitals,” Civil War History 48 (2002): 221.
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A free women, who went undercover as Ellen Bond, an illiterate enslaved women, in the
Richmond home of Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president.19
African American women spies gathered significant information revealing Confederate
whereabouts and military strategies. African American women contributed to the Union military
as scouts by informing Union Generals on information containing Confederates whereabouts.
Gerhard Luke Luhn, a Union soldier, describes his encounter with a scout:
I met a negro women who informed me the Yankees had a right smart fight with the folks
here yesterday and finally drove them out of town.20
The Negro woman informed Luhn and his soldiers of the events taking place the day before to
inform him of the battle and to confirm the direction of the Confederate troops.
African Americans contributed to the Union effort proving to be a vital weapon in the
victory of the Civil War. The Union military relied on the tremendous honor, pride, and fight of
African Americans during problematic periods endured by the Civil War. The Union relied on
the passing of the Confiscation Acts and the Emancipation Proclamation that fostered African
Americans enrollment in the Navy and Army, and efforts of women in their contributions to a
Union victory in the Civil War. Prior to the passing of the first Confiscation Act, African
Americans continuously fled from their southern plantations to join Union lines in anticipation to
contribute to the war effort and freedom. With no clear government policy, authority arose to
field commanders on whether southern slaves remained in Union camps or be returned to their
owners. General Butler developed the concept Contraband which allowed southern slaves to
19
Graham Russell Hodges, African American Women during the Civil War (New York & London: Garland Publishing,
Inc., 1998), 41.
20
Diary, May 23, 1864, box 1, folder 1883-1884, Coll. 3954 Gerhard Luke Luhn, American Heritage Center,
University of Wyoming.
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remain in Union camps. On August 8, 1861, Congress passed the First Confiscation Act
authorizing the seizure of slaves that contributed to the Confederate military. The Confiscation
Act permitted southern slaves to contribute to the war effort in the means of labor but banned the
participation in combat. On July 17 1862, Congress passed the Second Confiscation Act
authorizing the service of African Americans into the Navy but banned the participation in
combat. The act proclaimed that President Lincoln, if deemed necessary, may organize African
American troops and enlistment into the military service. In 1863, the passing of the
Emancipation Proclamation marked that day in history that allowed African Americans into the
Union military Army. The Emancipation proscribed no freedom for southern slaves but
remotely replenished the depleted units in the U.S. military. In 1862, African Americans enlisted
into the Union Navy. African Americans enlisted 18,000 men for the Union Navy. African
Americans served as pilots, landsmen, coalheavers, deck hands, firemen, and cooks in their
contribution to the Union victory. The colored troops immensely contributed to the Union
military in their participation in prominent battles including Petersburg and the surrender of
General Lee at Appomattox which provided as a significant turning point in the Civil War.
African American women also provided a prominent role in the Union victory as laborers on
plantations, nurses, spies, and as scouts. Women aided sick, injured, and wounded Union
soldiers while providing prominent information regarding Confederate raids and military
locations. African Americans provided several services ranging from the tremendous efforts of
women to the enlistment of Navy and Army soldiers which prominently contributed to the Union
victory in the Civil War.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bennitt, Benjamin. Col. 8896. American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
Bertenshaw, James. Coll. 07269. American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
Buker, George E. Blockaders, Refugees, & Contrabands: Civil War on Florida’s Gulf Coast,
1861-1865. Tuscaloosa and London: The University of Alabama Press, 1993.
Catton Bruce. Coll. 4032. American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
Dobak, William A. Freedom by the Sword The U.S. Colored Troops, 1862-1867. New York:
Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., 2013.
Hargrove, Hondon B. Black Union Soldiers in the Civil War. Jefferson, North Carolina, and
London: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1988.
Hodges, Graham Russell, Ed. African American Women during the Civil War. New York &
London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1998.
Levine, Bruce. Confederate Emancipation: Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves During the
Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Luhn, Gerhard Luke. Coll. 3954. American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
Schultz, Jane E. “Seldom Thanked, Never Praised, and Scarcely Recognized: Gender and
Racism in Civil War Hospitals.” Civil War History 48 (2002): 220-236.
Simmons, Sellano L. “Count them too: Americans from Delaware and the United States Civil
War Navy, 1861-1865.” The Journal of Negro History 85 (2000): 183-190.
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Smith John David, Ed. Black Soldiers in Blue: African American Troops in the Civil War Era.
Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
Swint Henry L, Ed. Dear Ones at Home: Letters from Contraband camps selected. Nashville:
Vanderbilt University Press, 1966.
Tomblin, Barbara Brooks. Bluejackets and Contrabands: African Americans and the Union
Navy. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2009.
Willis, Deborah and Barbara Krauthammer. Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and
the End of Slavery. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2013.