Contrabands.
On the day after his arrival at
Fort Monroe,
General Butler sent out
Colonel Phelps, of the
Vermont troops, to reconnoitre the vicinity of
Hampton.
The citizens had just fired the bridge.
The flames were extinguished by the troops, who crossed the stream, drove armed Confederates out of
Hampton, and found the inhabitants in sullen mood; but the negroes were jubilant, regarding the
Union troops as their expected deliverers.
In the confusion caused by this dash into
Hampton, three negroes, held as slaves by
Colonel Mallory, of that village, escaped into the
Union lines, and declared that many of their race, who were employed in building fortifications for the insurgents, desired to follow.
They were taken before
General Butler.
He needed laborers in field-works which he was about to construct.
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, “These men are contraband of war,” said
Butler; “set them at work.”
This order was scarcely announced before
Major Carey, as agent of
Colonel Mallory, and “in charge of his property,” appeared, wishing to know what the general intended to do with his runaways.
“I shall detain them as contraband of war,” said the general; and they were held as such.
Other slaves speedily came in.
General Butler wrote to the
Secretary of War,
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telling him what he had done, on the assumption that they were the property of an enemy of the republic used in warfare, and asking instructions.
His course was approved by his government; and thenceforward all fugitive slaves were considered “contraband of war,” and treated as such.
That masterly stroke of policy was one of the most effective aimed at the heart of the insurrection; and throughout the war the fugitive slave was known as the “contraband.”
So emancipation began.
