The Fallout from the Report on the Contraband Camps in Northern Virginia, 1864

Back in September I wrote about the Union Army's investigation of the contraband camps in Northern Virginia during the summer of 1864. The inspectors' report, authored by Majors Elisha Ludington and Charles Compton, condemned the military's experiment in transitioning slaves to freedom and economic independence. The officers called the government farms in Arlington, Langley, Lewinsville, and Falls Church nothing more than "expensive toys" and recommended that they be disbanded once the current growing season was over. (Berlin et al. 341.) The report was sent to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and soon landed on the desk of Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs.

The inspectors' conclusions did not sit well with Meigs, who had supported the efforts of Lt. Col. Elias M. Greene, the Chief Quartermaster of the Department of Washington, to establish the government farms on abandoned secessionist properties in Northern Virginia. The report singled out Greene's ideas for particular scorn. Meigs wrote to Stanton on August 15, 1864 to register his objections.

Lt. Col. Elias M. Greene, Chief QM of the Dept. of Washington (courtesy of Civil War Badges).

Meigs disputed the inspectors' accounting, arguing that the farms were actually turning a profit. In any event, the camps provided intangible benefits that far outweighed their cost. The farms ensured "healthful and useful employment for a considerable number of men and women who were not fit for the active and hard work of the army." (344.) The camps had also led to a drop in disease among the contrabands, who previously lived in crowded and unsanitary conditions in Washington City, and prevented the spread of smallpox to the white population of the nation's capital. Meigs further believed that the government had an obligation to care for the wives and children of those who were fighting for the Union. As he noted in his letter to Stanton, "the United States. . . must take care that they do not starve." (345.)

The Quartermaster General rejected the recommendation that the government farms be discontinued. However, he proposed that employment on the farms be limited to women and the infirm and that their pay "be reduced. . . to a mere reward, enabling the laborer to procure tobacco or some such luxury." (345.) Meigs overall defended Greene's contraband policies, and praised him for "the improvement in the condition, treatment and health of these poor creatures, and the cessation of the criticisms and complaints of the press." (345.)

Meigs's letter to Stanton was endorsed by the Inspector General, Col. James Hardie, and sent to Maj. Ludington with a request to take another look at the report's conclusions. Although Ludington lowered his cost estimate for the government farms, he still found that they ran at a loss to the government. He refused to take make any other changes or alterations to the original report.

Despite Meigs's best efforts, Greene lost his job over the inspectors' findings and criticisms. He was sent to the Western Theatre, and his duties largely fell to Capt. Joseph Brown, an assistant quartermaster of who became head of the Department of Washington's Bureau of Freedmen and Government Farms. The government farms, however, continued in operation against the inspectors' recommendations. Unfortunately, Brown would prove far from sympathetic to the plight of the freedmen and women living in the contraband camps.

Source

I am grateful once again to the historians of the Freedmen and Southern Society Project who compiled the primary source documents referenced here in Ira Berlin et al., Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867, Selected from the Holdings of the National Archives of the United States, Series I, Volume II, The Wartime Genesis of Free Labor: The Upper South (1993).

A Stinging Indictment of the Government Farms in Northern Virginia, July 1864

Earlier this summer I wrote about the state of Northern Virginia's contraband camps in Northern Virginia in June 1864. The Friends' Association for the Aid and Elevation of the Freedmen compiled a report on some of the camps that the Union Army had established on abandoned secessionist properties in the Old Dominion the previous year. The group took an overall positive view of developments on the government farms, although recognized the need for more improvements.

Not long afterwards, the War Department also decided to take a closer look at the farms, as well as the new contraband camp on Mason's Island and Freedman's Village on Robert E. Lee's Arlington estate. The department was footing the bill for the camps and surely wanted to assess the merits of the undertaking. On July 20, 1864, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton ordered officers working for the Union Army's Inspector General to conduct an investigation of  Freedman's Village and "all matters pertaining to the organization and control of the Freedmen in the Dept. of Washington." (in Berlin et al. 345.)

Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton (courtesy of Wikipedia)

Majors Elisha H. Ludington and Charles E. Compton began the inspection in earnest. On July 30, 1864 they sent their final report to Col. James A. Hardie, the Army Inspector General. The report, which stood in stark contrast to the Friends' optimistic assessment, sent shock waves throughout the Union military. 

Ludington and Compton examined the five government farms in Northern Virginia, comprising some 1,270 acres under cultivation. [1] They noted that the land was "of poor, thin soil, for the most part." (340.) Moreover, "[w]hen occupied it was without fences and overgrown with bush," so that "it was necessary to clear and fence it, with heavy expenditure." (340.) The two assistant inspectors general observed some positive developments after a year of operation:

These Farms appear well, the crops are fair, the employees comfortably cared for, and in all respects the farms compare favorably with others in the vicinity. (340.)

Nevertheless, they determined that the farms exhibited "a loss to Government of an alarmingly large sum," which they calculated to be $69,000 over the course of 13 months. (340-41.) As Ludington and Compton interpreted the accounts:

The expense of the Guard alone amounts to three fourths of the whole receipts. For wages alone there is paid within 3000$ as much as all the farms yield. And yet the crop is put at the highest estimate in amount, and valued at present extraordinary prices. (341.)

The report sharply criticized the entire endeavor, concluding that "[o]nly a very wealthy government can afford such expensive toys." (341.) (emphasis added.)

Freedman's Village and Mason's Island did not fare any better in the inspectors' eyes. In fact, the inspectors found conditions so "disgraceful" on Mason's Island that they recommended that Rev. Danforth B. Nichols, Superintendent of Freedmen for the Department, be removed from his position for his alleged mismanagement of the new camp. (343.)

Even in terms of non-material benefits, Ludington and Compton had nothing positive to add about the Army's efforts:

We fail to discover any improvements in the character or conduct of the Adults. Judging from what we saw, they are of the most ignorant class of slaves. Few have knowledge of any labor above field labor, and are but little skilled even in that. Their erroneous idea that "emancipation" signifies a claim upon Government for support in idleness, has been confirmed rather than corrected. (342.)

The two inspectors singled out Lt. Col. Elias Greene's "theories" about the camps  for particular scorn. (342.) Greene, the Chief Quartermaster of the Department of Washington, was instrumental in the establishment and organization of the camps, and they were managed under his direction. The inspectors rejected outright his policy of refusing to bind out adult contrabands unless their children could accompany them:

This cannot be maintained on principles of humanity, for these people are seldom married -- have little idea of training children, and cannot hope to give them such advantages as are afforded by the Schools at the "Village." Moreover, the necessities of the times compel separations. . . . Nearly every women being burdened with children lessens the chances of her employment. (342-43.)

The inspectors' utter disregard for families seemed no better than the views held by the freedpersons' former masters.

Not surprisingly, Ludington and Compton called for an overhaul of the entire system. They recommended that most women be sent to work in "those portions of our Country where labor is greatly demanded, taking with them their children under 4 years of age." (343-44.) However, hearkening back to their views on separation of families, the inspectors advised that children from 4 to 14 should be held back, supported, and educated "out of the [government's] Contraband Fund." (344.) With respect to the government farms scattered across Northern Virginia, they urged that "all farming operations be discontinued as soon as the present crop is secured." (344.)

Col. James A. Hardie, Army Inspector General (courtesy of Wikipedia).

After landing on the Inspector General's desk, Hardie endorsed and forwarded the damning report to the Secretary of War. On August 4, Stanton sent the document to Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs. The inspectors had challenged nearly all of Greene's efforts to deal with the contraband problem around the nation's capital, and coming days would bring both controversy and change.

Up Next

Meigs rushes to the defense of his subordinate.

Source

I am grateful to the historians of the Freedmen and Southern Society Project who compiled the primary source documents referenced here in Ira Berlin et al., Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867, Selected from the Holdings of the National Archives of the United States, Series I, Volume II, The Wartime Genesis of Free Labor: The Upper South (1993).

Note

[1] The five contraband farms were likely Camps Beckwith, Rucker, Springdale, Todd, and Wadsworth.

The Friends' Association Reports on the State of the Contraband Camps, June 1864

During late spring 1863, the Union Army resettled nearly nine hundred former slaves on abandoned secessionist properties across Northern Virginia. Lt. Col. Elias Greene, the Chief Quartermaster of the Department of Washington, wanted to put the contrabands to work raising crops for the Union war effort and viewed the government farms as a way to improve the condition of the freedmen and women who had fled to the nation's capital in search of freedom and opportunity. The Friends' Association for the Aid and Elevation of the Freedmen and other charitable organizations supplemented the government's efforts to assist the contrabands who lived in the camps. As summer 1864 fast approached, the farms were already a year old. Just how had conditions evolved since Greene launched his ambitious program to manage the contraband situation and improve the lot of the former slaves?

In June 1864, Harriet E. Stockly of the Friends' Association made a "visit of examination to the camps near Washington." (First Annual Rpt. 4.) Her final report, which was published in the Friends' Intelligencer of June 25, 1864, provides useful insights into the condition of the government farms in Northern Virginia at the time.

Camp Todd

Camp Todd sat across the Potomac from Washington in Alexandria (now Arlington) County. When the government established the camp in June 1863, Greene chose to house the freedmen and women in former army barracks near Ft. Albany. Stockly counted 280 persons a year later. [n1] Two-thirds were "adult women" because "most of the men belonging to these families [were] in 2d District regiment, stationed at Key West, Fa." (Friends' Intelligencer 249.) [n2] The noted abolitionist Emily Howland served as superintendent and teacher. Stockly described the economic activity at Camp Todd:

Those in camp are working industriously on the Hunter farm, in which there are 200 acres under cultivation. Many of the women are also working on the farm. The men receive from $8 to $10 , and the women from $6 to $8 per month. The vegetable garden belonging to government contains twenty acres. 

Here, as at all the camps, Stockly found that "[t]here seems a prevalent want . . . of a spot of ground to
belong to each family where they can raise vegetables for themselves, and also to give their homes a more attractive appearance."

Detail from 1862 Union Army map of N.E. Virginia showing properties associated with Camp Todd (courtesy of Library of Congress). Ft. Albany sat on land belonging to James Roach, a wealthy contractor with secessionist sympathies. The abandoned army huts used by the former slaves were located close to Ft. Albany, possibly on Roach's property. Today the area is bisected by I-395 near the Pentagon. According to Stockly's report, the contrabands farmed land belonging to the Hunter family, likely the property marked "Genl Hunter" on the map above. The Hunter plantation was known as Abingdon. Gen. Alexander Hunter had died by the time of the Civil War, but the plantation remained in his family through his brother and nephew, who entered the Confederate service in 1861. Today the grounds of Ronald Reagan National Airport occupy the site of Abingdon. Another possibility for the Hunter farm is the land belonging to a Mrs. Hunter situated to the west of Ft. Albany along Columbia Turnpike.

Camp Wadsworth

Stockly also visited Camp Wadsworth in Langley, where she counted "[o]ne hundred and seventy Freedmen" in the care of superintendent Philip Fowler and farmer Ephrafm Plowman. [n3] Five hundred acres were "under cultivation, worked by about 60 persons" for "10 hours a day." According to Stockly,"[t]he farm looks well, and it is supposed 30 bushels of wheat and 50 bushels of rye will be raised to the acre." On the downside, Stockly was shocked to find that "some children of only eleven years of age are put to daily labor in direct violation of Government regulations, which require that they be sent to school till they are 14." Her findings helped to spur the appointment of teacher Lydia T. Atkinson.

Stockly took stock of living situation at Camp Wadsworth, reporting that "[t]he Freedmen occupy two houses three-quarters of a mile apart." [n4] As for alternatives, Stockly observed that "[t]here are only three or four cabins and six acres appropriated to them, but the farmer promises to make a different arrangement." [n5]

Camp Rucker

At Camp Rucker near Falls Church, Stockly found "[e]ighty-six men, women and children -- 20 men, 32 women, and 34 children" under superintendent Fowler and farmer Oliver Beesley. [n6] Sarah Ann Cadwallader were serving as a teacher at the camp. All told, "there [were] at this time, on this farm, 90 acres in winter grain, 85 in corn, 50 in grass, 7 in garden, 2 1/2 in black-eyed peas, 25 of white beans, 2 1/2 of corn for horses, and 1 acre in potatoes."

Camp Rucker had been established on property belonging to Maj. William D. Nutt, who fled to Richmond upon arrival of Union troops in September 1861. The government initially sheltered the contrabands in tents, but by the time Stockly arrived, the situation had changed. She noted:

Since last fall, all the cabins, 15 in number, have been built: with four exceptions, they are 16 feet by 14 feet, and ample in height. There are upon an average about six persons to each house. Should the Freedmen remain here, there will be more cabins erected. Government has disposed of this farm, and the people will have to be removed, but this probably may not occur for two or three years. [n7]

Camp Rucker left Stockly with am extremely positive, if not somewhat exaggerated, impression:

The condition of the Freedmen here is very satisfactory. Their cabins are whitewashed outside and in, and all neatly kept. The people are clean, tidy and highly appreciative of the improvement in their condition. Many of them escaped from severe masters, and they manifest a degree of gratitude to those who have aided them which I have never seen excelled. They are exceedingly attached to their teacher, and fear lest she should leave them. She has labored indefatigably, and in a measure successfully, for their elevation, and it is their testimony that their condition has been greatly improved since she came among them. There is a smaller number at this camp than at any other, which gives them a decided advantage. The standard of morality is high, and they are well cared for. 

Stockly concluded:

The people here will not be likely to need further supplies from us. The teacher thinks that when the present supply is exhausted they will be self-sustaining, unless an unexpected calamity shall befall them.

While at Camp Rucker, Stockly had a chance to attend a wedding ceremony:

. . . I never saw a ceremony of the kind conducted with greater dignity or propriety. They were married by a colored clergyman, who read the Episcopal service, frequently pausing to consider the words before pronouncing them. We were honored with an invitation to the supper. The order in which it was partaken by the guests was somewhat peculiar. First the bride and groom ate alone, then the first bridesmaid and groomsmen, then the second, then their white friends, then their colored friends.

Stockly also visited other contraband settlements in Washington City, Alexandria, Falls Church, Freedman's Village, and Mason's Island before returning home.

Conclusion

Thanks to Stockly's report, we have an idea about how the freedmen and women were faring in the contraband camps of Northern Virginia after a year in operation. The number of former slaves at Camps Rucker, Todd, and Wadsworth remained roughly the same. Hundreds of acres were under cultivation, providing the government with crops and the freedmen and women with an income, however modest. Conditions at Camp Rucker had progressed to a point of near self-sufficiency, and the former slaves there finally had a roof over their heads. Teachers were also holding classes for those who had never learned to read and write. Of course, the situation was far from perfect. Unlawful child labor remained prevalent at Camp Wadsworth. The former slaves also lacked opportunities to own and farm their own plots of land. And left unsaid in Stockly's report, the very existence of the camps raised questions about how long a successful transition from slavery to freedom and economic independence would take. The Friends' Association, as well as the U.S. Government, had much work left to do.

Notes

1. The Superintendent of Freemen, Rev. Danforth B. Nichols, reported 230 persons in Camp Todd on June 30, 1863.

2. This regiment was also known as the 2nd United States Colored Troops.

3. Nichols reported 178 residents in June 1863, slightly more than a year later.

4. The dwellings belonged to Lewis D. Means and Confederate Navy officer James W. Cooke, secessionists who had fled Langley at the start of the war. See my previous post for more information about the owners.

5. It is unclear who built these cabins and where they were located.

6. By contrast, there were 105 residents of Camp Rucker in June 1863.

7. According to an item in the Alexandria Gazette on March 1, 1864, Nutt's property near Falls Church was seized and sold by the U.S. Government under the Direct Tax Act.

Sources

Alexandria Gazette, Mar. 1, 1864; Assn. of Friends (ed.), Friends' Intelligencer: A Religious and Family Journal, Vol. XXI (1865); Board of Managers, Friends' Assn. for the Aid and Elevation of the Freedmen, First Annual Report of the Board of Managers of the Friends' Assn. for the Aid and Elevation of the Freedmen (1865); Benjamin Franklin Cooling III & Walton H. Owen II, Mr. Lincoln's Forts: A Guide to the Civil War Defenses of Washington (2010 ed.); Alexander Hunter, Johnny Reb and Billy Yank (1905);  "The Hunter Family Marker: Abingdon Plantation," HMdb.org; D.B. Nichols, Official Report on Superintendent Nichols Freedman's Department, South Potomac, Quartermaster for the Department of Washington, July 10, 1863, in New York Times, Aug. 9, 1863 ("Official Report"); "Prospect Hill Marker," HMdb.org.

Contraband Camps Established in Northern Virginia: May-June 1863, Part II

As I wrote last week, the population of contrabands in Washington exploded during the first couple years of the Civil War. Conditions for the former slaves at Camp Barker and other contraband settlements continued to deteriorate throughout the start of 1863. In May 1863, Lt. Col. Elias Greene, the Chief Quartermaster for the Department of Washington, proposed the establishment of contraband farms on abandoned secessionist lands in Northern Virginia. Greene hoped that his plan would lead to an improvement in the physical and moral health of the contrabands, as well as generate savings for the government. The War Department quickly approved Greene's proposal, and the Federal authorities set to work under the direction of D.B. Nichols, Superintendent of Freedmen.

On May 18, 1863, the Union military established the first of the contraband farms, Camp Springdale, on the grounds of Robert E. Lee's Arlington estate. According to an official report filed by Nichols on July 10, the initial population at the camp consisted of "around ninety persons in all." (Official Report.)* The contrabands were quartered in tents because no deserted homes were available to shelter the camp's inhabitants. (Incidentally, Greene and Nichols were also busy on Lee's property building a planned community for ex-slaves known as "Freedman's Village.")

A group of contrabands (courtesy of Library of Congress). This picture was taken in Cumberland Landing, Virginia, but similar scenes were surely encountered in Northern Virginia's contraband camps.

The work continued towards the end of the month. On May 30, the Federal authorities established Camp Rucker on secessionist property in Falls Church.** Nichols reported that "the people at this place had to be sheltered in tents, there being no houses in the vicinity belonging to rebel owners." (Official Report.) That same day, Camp Wadsworth was set up in Langley on a Confederate sympathizer's abandoned farm near the Leesburg-Georgetown Turnpike. Not long after, a branch of Camp Wadsworth was situated on a neighboring secessionist property.*** The contrabands in the Langley camps lived in the empty farmhouses of the "rebel owners." (Official Report.)

The following week, Nichols and his men established two more contraband farms in Virginia. Camp Todd was placed on the site of a former Union Army encampment near Fort Albany**** The Union contrabands took possession of the log huts that were formerly occupied by soldiers under Gen. Silas Casey. Nichols considered that "these houses have capacity of holding not less than one thousand people, and are in a good degree of preservation." (Official Report.) Camp Beckwith was organized on two secessionist farms near Lewinsville, and the former slaves were placed in abandoned dwellings on the properties.*****

"Fort Albany, Near Alexandria, Virginia," from Harper's Weekly, Nov. 30, 1861 (courtesy of sonofthesouth.net). Camp Todd was established close to the fort at the start of June 1863.

Nichols reported the following numbers for each of the contraband camps in Northern Virginia as of June 30, 1863:

Camp Springdale, 300; Camp Todd, 230; Camp Rucker, 105; Camp Wadsworth, 178; Camp Beckwith, 72; total, 885.  (Official Report; see also Alexandria Gazette, Aug. 5, 1863.)

Nichols provided government rations to the contrabands living on the new farms. According to his official report:

Every man or woman above the ages of 16 and 14 years has drawn daily one ration; every boy from 1 year to 16 years, and every girl from 1 to 14 years, has drawn one-half rations; all below one year have drawn, nothing. (Official Report.)

In addition, Nichols believed that life on the contraband farms was having an overall positive impact, despite continued illnesses and deaths:

There has been a manifest improvement in the tone of health since we came over this side of the Potomac. We have had fresh air and pure water, and work on the soil to employ the people. This has contributed to the health of the people. Though several contagious diseases appeared among the people, yet they have easily yielded to the treatment, or have been removed to the pest-house in Washington. Twenty persons have died during the month of June, fifteen of whom were children, and five of the fifteen were only twelve months old, or under. (Official Report.)

By contrast, around twenty-five died per week in 1863 at Camp Barker, the main contraband settlement in Washington City. (NPS, "Freedman's Village," fn10.)

Nichols also oversaw the installation of buildings for use by the government in the administration of the contrabands in Virginia. He likely enlisted the services of able-bodied contrabands in undertaking this work. As Nichols informed Greene:

We have constructed quarters for the Superintendent of Freedmen and an office for the same; a storeroom for commissary department and another for agricultural implements, and a forage house and quarters and an office for the Surgeon. (Official Report.)******

Moreover, Nichols' teams removed wood poles from abandoned campsites at nearby Minor's Hill for use in constructing contraband housing. As to these various projects, Nichols concluded that the "work has been well done, and has a respectable show as regards amount, and the promise of ample remuneration is cheering." (Official Report.)

Nichols concluded with a few recommendations. He wanted all the contraband women and children to stay at Camps Springdale and Todd, under the protection Fort Albany's guns. The men could work on the other farms, return on Saturday evening, and leave for work again on Monday morning. Aside from the added security, Nichols also felt that the arrangement "would place [the contrabands] more immediately under the eye of the superintendent of them, and thus take away the necessity of having any assistant on each of these farms except that of the farmer." (Official Report.)

Nichols asked that the commander of the Department of Washington grant him "the power to perform the marriage ceremony among [the contrabands]." (Official Report.) He also requested that "a military commission (or a commission) be appointed, consisting of the military commander of the post, and the superintendent of the freedmen and the surgeon in charge, who shall hear causes of complaint made by [the contrabands] in relation to want of fidelity of parties to the marriage contract, and determine the facts and the penalty of every violation of the same." (Official Report.) Nichols noted that similar orders had already been instituted in the Department of South Carolina.

One hundred and fifty years ago the Federal government launched a social and economic revolution of sorts on the soil of the Old Dominion. The very notion of seizing the property of individuals who supported a government based on the preservation of slavery and turning that same land over to use by former slaves represented a radical step towards sealing the fate of the peculiar institution. The contraband farms "would eventually have nearly 1,300 acres under cultivation." (Berlin et al. 254.) Controversy and scandal also lie ahead. But in mid-July 1863, Greene and Nichols were just getting started. I hope you'll join me over the upcoming weeks and months as I return to the story of Northern Virginia's contraband camps.

Notes

*The founding of Camp Springdale pre-dated the official order authorizing the camps that was issued by Gen. Samuel P. Heintzelman, commander of the Department of Washington, on May 22. The War Department, however, had approved Greene's plan on May 14. (Berlin et al. 299.) At this time, I am unsure of the origins of Camp Springdale's name.

**Camp Rucker was likely named after Gen. Daniel Henry Rucker, Chief Quartermaster of the Washington Depot. The Washington Depot was a major Union supply center for troops operating in the Eastern Theater of the war.

***Camp Wadsworth was the probable namesake of Gen. James Wadsworth, head of the Military District of Washington from March to September 1862.

****Fort Albany was situated north of Alexandria near the Long Bridge (generally the site of today's 14th Street Bridges). I have not yet discovered the provenance of the Camp Todd's name.

*****Camp Beckwith was likely named after Col. Amos Beckwith, the Chief Commissary of Subsistence of the Washington Depot.

******The exact location of these structures is uncertain from the information provided in the report. Given that Nichols subsequently worked at Freedman's Village, these buildings were likely erected on the Lee's estate.

Up Next

In a future post, I will pinpoint the location of Camps Wadsworth and Beckwith in the McLean, Virginia area and take a look at the individuals whose properties were seized by the government for use as contraband farms.

Sources

Alexandria Gazette, Aug. 5, 1863; "Amos Beckwith," Find a Grave; Ira Berlin et al., Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867, Selected from the Holdings of the National Archives of the United States, Series I, Volume II, The Wartime Genesis of Free Labor: The Upper South (1993); John H. Eicher & David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands (2001); Allen C. Guelzo, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America (2004); Robert Harrison, Washington During Civil War and Reconstruction: Race and Radicalism (2011); National Park Service, "Freedman's Village," Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial (website); Clayton R. Newell & Charles R. Shrader, Of Duty Well and Faithfully Done: A History of the Regular Army in the Civil War (2011); D.B. Nichols, Official Report on Superintendent Nichols Freedman's Department, South Potomac, Quartermaster for the Department of Washington, July 10, 1863, in New York Times, Aug. 9, 1863 ("Official Report"); James Grant Wilson & John Fiske (eds.), "Amos Beckwith," Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. 1 (1888).

Contraband Camps Established in Northern Virginia: May-June 1863, Part I

A few months ago when researching events that transpired in the McLean area during 1863, I came across various references to "contraband camps." After some additional digging, I discovered that the Union military established camps for fugitive slaves on land in Northern Virginia at the end of May and start of June 1863. Unlike the Freedman's Village on Robert E. Lee's Arlington Estate, these contraband camps have attracted little attention in accounts of local Civil War history. In today's post I begin an exploration of the contraband camps of Northern Virginia. My research has just started, and I hope to tell more of this compelling story in the months ahead.

As the Civil War progressed, thousands of slaves fled to the nation's capital from surrounding states in search of freedom and opportunity. The abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia in April 1862 led to an even greater migration of slaves to Washington City. The problems of caring for these contrabands mounted as their numbers grew. Northern aid and religious societies provided material donations of necessities like clothing and sent teachers to educate the former slaves, but the chief responsibility for the contrabands rested with the Federal Government.

James Wadsworth, the military governor of Washington, soon recruited help from the outside. In June 1862 he named the Rev. Danforth B. Nichols as the Superintendent of Freedmen.  Nichols was a Methodist minister and member of the American Missionary Association, a society dedicated to abolition, racial equality, the education of blacks, and the spread of Christian values. (NPS, Theodore Roosevelt Island, fn121.) In his new role, Nichols oversaw the distribution of food, blankets, and clothing to ex-slaves; placed them in jobs throughout the city; and handled issues related to contraband housing.

Gen. James S. Wadsworth, commander of the Military District of Washington from March 1862 to September 1862 (courtesy of ExplorePAHistory.com).  Wadsworth faced the challenge of dealing with an influx of contrabands during his time in the nation's capital.

Many contrabands were housed in tenement dwellings along Duff Green's Row on Capitol Hill. In July 1862 smallpox erupted among the contrabands there, and the authorities feared the spread of the deadly disease. Nichols removed the contrabands to abandoned barracks at a more remote location, far from the populated areas of the capital. (The camp sat at 12th and Vermont Avenue, N.W., near today's Logan Circle). Called Camp Barker, this new settlement "became the center of the government's effort to provide relief and employment for former slaves in the District of Columbia," but before long, difficulties also plagued Camp Barker. (Berlin et al. 247.) The contraband population continued to grow, and conditions deteriorated. Diseases like scarlet fever, whooping cough, and measles spread in the overcrowded barracks and killed many of the former slaves. Nichols also worried that the close quarters at Camp Barker were contributing to promiscuity and immorality.

View of Camp Barker (courtesy of Civil War Trust).

The government clearly faced a daunting task as the third year of the war got underway. Lt. Col. Elias Greene, the Chief Quartermaster for the Department of Washington, hatched a plan. In early May 1863, he wrote to Gen. Samuel P. Heintzelman, commander of the Department. Greene viewed the population of dependent contrabands as a "dead weight on the Government." (Berlin et al. 298.) The Chief Quartermaster reminded Heitzelman that lands abandoned by "rebel owners" in Virginia were "now lying idle." (in Berlin et al. 298.) He observed:

On quite a number of these farms the houses are left standing--of these, there are enough to provide quarters for, from 500 to 750 field hands, with a very small outlay for additions and improvements. (in Berlin et al. 298.)

The Chief Quartermaster suggested:

The force of contrabands, males and females, now idle in this City. . . can be employed to very great advantage in cultivating the above lands, raising corn and millet, cutting Hay . . . for this Department. (in Berlin et al. 298.)

Greene felt that there would be "a decided advantage afforded to [the contrabands] of the salutary effects of good pure country air." (in Berlin et al. 298.) Moreover "a return to their previous healthy avocations as 'field hands' under much happier auspices than heretofore, . . . must prove beneficial to them, and will tend to prevent the increase of diseases now prevalent among them." (in Berlin et al. 298.)

Greene concluded:

The arrangement I propose will not only in my opinion conduce to the sanitary and moral improvements of the contrabands, but will save the Govt an immense amount of money. (in Berlin 298.)

Greene recommended that Nichols, who agreed with the plan, remain as Superintendent. The Chief Quartermaster also asked for a response to his proposal within 48 hours so that farming could start before the imminent end of the planting season.

Heintzelman approved Greene's plan, and Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs added his endorsement. On May 14, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton agreed to the proposed system of contraband camps in Virginia, and a week later, Heintzelman formally issued orders authorizing Greene to execute his plan by relocating dependent contrabands to abandoned secessionist lands in Virginia. (General Orders No. 28, May 22, 1863.) The social experiment across the Potomac would begin in earnest.

Up Next: Nichols establishes five camps throughout Arlington and Fairfax.

Sources
Ira Berlin et al., Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867, Selected from the Holdings of the National Archives of the United States, Series I, Volume II, The Wartime Genesis of Free Labor: The Upper South (1993); John H. Eicher & David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands (2001); Allen C. Guelzo, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America (2004); Robert Harrison, Washington During Civil War and Reconstruction: Race and Radicalism (2011); National Park Service, "Freedman's Village," Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial (website); National Park Service, Historic American Landscapes Survey: Theodore Roosevelt Island.