Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

[501] and that they themselves were about to be sent to North Carolina for the same purpose. They were taken before General Butler. He needed laborers on field-works, which he expected to erect immediately. Regarding these slaves, according to the laws of Virginia, as much the property of Colonel Mallory as his horses or his pistols, and as properly seizable as they, as aids in warfare, and which might be used against the National troops, Butler said:--“These men are contraband of war; set them at work.” This order was scarcely pronounced before Major Carey, of the “Virginia Volunteers,” sought an interview with the General respecting the fugitives, representing himself as the agent of Colonel Mallory in “charge of his property.” The interview was granted, when the Major wished to know what the General intended to do with the runaways. “I shall detain them as contraband of war,” was the reply; and they were held as such.

Other slaves speedily followed those of Colonel Mallory, and General Butler wrote to the Secretary of War concerning them, relating what he had done, on the assumption that they were the property of an enemy used in warfare, and asking for instructions. The General's action was approved by his Government; and thenceforward all fugitive slaves were considered as “contraband of war,” and treated as such. On the spot where the first African who was sold as a slave in America first inhaled the fresh air of the New World, the destruction of the system of slavery, which had prevailed in Virginia two hundred and forty years, was thus commenced.¹ That master-stroke of policy was one of the most effective blows aimed at the heart of the rebellion; and throughout the war the fugitive slave was known as a contraband. “An epigram,” prophetically wrote the brilliant Major Winthrop, of Butler's staff, who fell in battle a few days later--“an epigram abolished slavery in the United States.”

Theodore Winthrop.

Thoroughly convinced that Fortress Monroe was the proper base for operations against Richmond; for the severance of Virginia from the other Southern States; and for the seizure of the great railway centers of that Commonwealth, Butler made his plans and dispositions accordingly. On the 27th of May he sent Colonel Phelps in the steamer Catiline, with a detachment, to occupy and fortify the promontory of Newport-Newce, where the United States steamer Harriet Lane lay to protect them. He was accompanied by Lieutenant John T. Greble, of the Second Regiment of Artillery, an accomplished young officer, educated at West Point, whom he appointed Master of Ordnance, to superintend the construction of the works. Greble had under his command two subalterns and twenty men of the regular Army. Camp Butler was at