CORINTH:  The Story of a Contraband Camp
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Cam Walker

FOOTNOTES ======
[1]    There is no study of the contraband camps in the western
theater comparable to Willie Lee Rose's excellent account of the Port
Royal, S.C., experiment, REHEARSAL FOR RECONSTRUCTION (Indianapolis,
1964).

[2]     John Eaton, GRANT, LINCOLN AND THE FREEDMEN (New York, 1907),
pp. 5, 31.

[3]     Quoted in Stanley P. Hirson, GRENVILLE M. DODGE: SOLDIER,
POLITICIAN, RAILROAD PIONEER (Bloomington, 1967), p. 62.

[4]    James M. Alexander, Service Record, R.G.94, National Archives,
Washington, D.C.

[5]    Grant to Dodge, Nov. 6, 1862, Records of the United States Army
Commands, R.G. 393 National Archives, Dept. of the Tennessee, Letters
Sent, 1862, Vol. I.

[6]    Grant, Special Orders No. 15, Nov. 11, 1862, quoted in Eaton,
GRANT, p. 5.

[7]    For descriptions of the Cairo camp, see Levi Coffin,
REMINISCENCES OF LEVI COFFIN... (Cincinnati, 1876), pp. 620-623;
Coffin to S.S. Jocelyn, Dec. 13, 1862, Archives of the American
Missionary Association, Amistad Research Center, Dillard University,
New Orleans, cited hereafter as AMA; Elizabeth Nicholson, "A
Contraband Camp," INDIANA HISTORY BULLETIN, I (Sept., 1924), 134-140.

[8]    Stanton to Gen. Tuttle, Oct. 13, 1862, THE WAR OF THE
REBELLION:  A COMPILATION OF THE OFFICIAL RECORDS OF THE UNION AND
CONFEDERATE ARMIES (Washington, 1880-1901), Ser. III, Vol. II, 663; V.
Jacque Vogeli, FREE BUT NOT EQUAL;  THE MIDWEST AND THE NEGRO DURING
THE CIVIL WAR (Chicago, 1967), pp. 60-61.  For a reiteration of this
point, see Halleck to Grant, Jan. 19, 1863, OR, Ser. I, LII, i, 323.

[9]    Ulysses S. Grant, PERSONAL MEMOIRS OF U.S.GRANT (New York,
1885), I, 424-425.

[10]   Eaton, GRANT, pp. 20-23; Grant, General Orders No. 13, quoted
ibid., pp. 26-27.

[11]   ibid., p. 19.

[12]   This description of Corinth is drawn from John Eaton, Report on
contrabands in the Dept. of the Tenn., April 29, 1863, Letters
Received by the Adjutant General's Office, microfilm M-619, National
Archives, Records of the American Freedmen's Inquiry Commission, Reel
200.  Cited hereafter as Eaton, 1863 Report; Memphis BULLETIN, Sept.
15, 1863; Lucinda Humphrey to George Whipple, March 7, 1863, AMA;
G.N. Carruthers to [Secys. AMA], Dec. 1863 [sic], AMERICAN MISSIONARY
(Mar. 1864), pp. 67-68.

[13]   Eaton to Whipple, Feb. 26, 1863, AMA.

[14]   Pierce to Jocelyn, Apr. 9, 1863, ibid.

[15]   Mann to Aunt Mary, May 18, 1863, Mann Papers, Library of
Congress.

[16]   Alexander was a Presbyterian.  He enlisted as a chaplain with
the Western Sharpshooters, 14th Missouri Vols., on Sept. 10, 1861.
(The War Dept. later declared the regiment to be an Illinois one, the
66th.)  Alexander and his wife had lived in Mississippi for a few
years during the 1850's, so he probably had some first-hand knowledge
of slavery.  Alexander, Service Record;  Alexander, Pension Record,
R.G. 15, National Archives.

[17]   Eaton to Whipple, Feb. 26, 1863, AMA.

[18]   A.D. Olds to Whipple, Jan. 9, 1864, ibid.; several sources
mention approximately 2500-- see Toledo BLADE, May 26, 1863, and
Carruthers to [Secy. AMA], Dec. 1863, AMERICAN MISSIONARY (Mar.,
1864), pp. 67-68; Levi Coffin speaks of 6000, but no one else mentions
more than 3000.  Coffin, p. 636.  No official records of the camp's
population seem to have survived.

[19]   Eaton to Henry Cowles, Mar. 13, 1863, AMA.

[20]   Pierce to Jocelyn, Apr. 29, 1863, ibid.

[21]   Coffin, REMINISCENCES, p. 637.

[22]   Olds to Whipple, June 9, 1863, AMA.

[23]   Coffin, REMINISCENCES, p. 637.

[24]   Dodge acted without authorization according to Hirshon, p. 73.

[25]   Eaton, 1863 Report.

[26]   Stanton to Thomas, Mar. 25, 1863, OR, Ser. III, III, 100-101.

[27]   D.O. McCord and others to Alexander, Aug. 6, 1864, Alexander,
Service Record.

[28]   Eaton to Jocelyn, May 18, 1863, Records of the Bureau of
Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, R.G.105, National Archives,
Mississippi, Letters Sent, 1863, Vol. 74, pp. 48-52.  Cited hereafter
as BRFAL;  Olds to Jocelyn, May 16, 1863, AMA.

[29]   Eaton to Cowles, Mar. 13, 1863, ibid.

[30]   See Eaton, GRANT, pp. 30-31 for a vivid description of this
evacuation.

[31]   Eaton to Robert Carroll, n.d., BRFAL, Mississippi, Letters
Sent, 1863, Vol. 74, pp. 23-26.

[32]   Eaton to Cowles, Mar. 13, 1863, AMA.

[33]   ibid.

[34]   ibid.

[35]   Eaton, 1863 Report.

[36]   Records for the Adjutant General's Office, R.G. 94, National
Archives, Dept. of the Tenn., Corinth, Vol. 551.

[37]   Eaton to Dodge, n.d., BRFAL, Mississippi, Letters Sent, 1863,
Vol. 74, p. 37.

[38]   Eaton, 1863 Report.

[39]   Eaton to Cowles, Mar. 13, 1863, AMA.

[40]   One missionary advanced the metaphor:  "The field is truly
white for the harvest."  Olds to Jocelyn, May 16, 1863, ibid.

[41]   Olds to Whipple, June 9, 1863, ibid.

[42]   Pierce to Jocelyn, Apr. 9, 1863, ibid.

[43]   Additional workers were a Miss Warren, a Mrs. Curtis, and the
Reverend G. N. Carruthers, who took over direction of the school when
Pierce became chaplain of Corinth's first black regiment.

[44]   Coffin, p. 636; Caruthers [sic] to [Secys. AMA], June 12, 1863,
AMERICAN MISSIONARY (Aug. 1863), pp. 185-186.

[45]   Olds to Whipple, June 9, 1863, AMA.

[46]   Carruthers to [Secys. AMA], Aug. 24, 1863, AMERICAN MISSIONARY
(Oct. 1863), pp. 236-237.  One observer reported that "it takes ...
about three weeks for them to learn to read in the first reader."
Toledo BLADE, May 26, 1863.

[47]   Humphrey to [Secys. AMA], June 11, 1863, AMA.

[48]   Pierce to Jocelyn, Apr. 9, 1863, ibid.

[49]   Olds to Whipple, Apr. 16, 1863, ibid.

[50]   ibid., June 9, 1863.

[51]   Olds to [Secys. AMA], Sept. 22, 1863, AMERICAN MISSIONARY (Nov.
1863), pp. 254-255.

[52]   Carruthers to [Secys. AMA], Aug. 24, 1863, ibid. (Oct. 1863),
pp. 236-237.

[53]   Olds to [Secys. AMA], Sept. 22, 1863, ibid. (Nov. 1863), pp.
254-255.

[54]  Eaton, GRANT, p. 54.

[55]  Eaton to Jocelyn, may 18, 1863, BRFAL, Mississippi, Letters
Sent, 1863, Vol. 74, pp. 48-52.  Eaton gives a detailed description of
the whole Corinth visit; he includes much of the same information in
Eaton to H.B.Spelman, May 23, 1863, ibid., pp. 55-58.

[56]  Olds to Jocelyn, May 16, 1863, AMA.

[57]  ibid.  Alexander told Eaton the same thing.  Eaton to Jocelyn,
May 18, 1863, BRFAL, Mississippi, Letters Sent, 1863, Vol. 74, pp.
48-52.

[58]   Alexander, Service Record; Toledo BLADE, May 26, 1863.

[59]   Caruthers [sic] to [Secys. AMA], June 12, 1862, AMERICAN
MISSIONARY (Aug. 1863), pp. 185-186.

[60]   Most of the information on the regiment is drawn from Robert
Cowden, A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE ORGANIZATION AND SERVICES OF THE
FIFTY-NINETH REGIMENT OF THE UNITED STATES COLORED INFANTRY AND
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES (Dayton, Ohio, 1883), pp. 48-49, 51.  The 55th
and the 59th were in the same brigade.

[61]   Chicago TRIBUNE, Jan. 18, 1864, quoted in Dudley Cornish, "The
Union Army as a School for Negroes," JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY, XXXVII,
4 (Oct., 1952), 372.

[62]   Coffin, REMINISCENCES, p. 637.

[63]   Cornish, "The Union Army" p. 372.

[64]   Carruthers to [Secys. AMA], Aug. 24, 1863, AMERICAN MISSIONARY
(Oct., 1863), pp. 236-237.

[65]   ibid.

[66]   When Coffin visited the camp in late May he found that "a
second regiment of colored soldiers was nearly full."  Coffin,
REMINISCENCES, p. 637.

[67]   Eaton to Carroll, n.d., BRFAL, Mississippi, Letters Sent, 1863,
Vol. 74, pp. 23-26.  Because news traveled so slowly Eaton and others
in the West often thought the government was more dilatory than in
fact it was.

[68]   Eaton to Wilson, n.d., ibid., pp. 16-23.

[69]   Eaton never explained what his other "representations" were,
but he did ask Robert Carroll to try to get Stanton to order him
(Eaton) to Washington so that he could push his plan in person.  Eaton
to Carroll, Mar. 10, 1863, ibid., pp. 28-29.

[70]   Eaton to Caroll, n.d., ibid., pp. 23-26.

[71]   ibid.

[72]   Eaton to A.M. Taylor, Mar. 28, 1863, ibid., pp. 38-39.

[73]   Eaton to Boynton, n.d., ibid., pp. 37-38.

[74]   Eaton to Spelman, May 23, 1863, ibid., pp. 55-58.

[75]   Mann to Aunt Mary, May 18, 1863, Mann Papers.

[76]   ibid.; toledo BLADE, May 26, 1863; a report in the Memphis
BULLETIN, Sept. 15, 1863, mentions 275 acres in cotton and about 100
in garden;  Levi Coffin reports 1000 acres under cultivation, 125 in
garden, but Coffin's figures often seem exaggerated.  Coffin,
REMINISCENCES, p. 636.

[77]   Quoted in Toledo BLADE, May 26, 1863.

[78]   ibid.

[79]   ibid.;  Miss Mann explained that "--ALL clothing OLD & NEW is
SOLD to them, charged to the wages yet to be paid from the crops."
Mann to Aunt Mary, May 18, 1863, Mann Papers; Toledo BLADE, May 19,
1863.

[80]   Memphis BULLETIN, Sept. 15, 1863.  Olds commented in September
that "the more recently constructed homes are much better than the old
ones,..."  Olds to [Secys. AMA], Sept. 22, 1863, AMERICAN MISSIONARY
(Nov., 18630, pp. 254-255.

[81]   Caruthers [sic] to [Secys. AMA], June 12, 1863, ibid. (Aug.
1863), pp.185-186.

[82]   Memphis BULLETIN, Sept. 15, 1863.

[83]   Carruthers to [Secys. AMA], Aug. 24, 1863, AMERICAN MISSIONARY
(Oct., 1864), pp. 236-237.

[84]   Note at the end of Olds to [Secys. AMA], Sept. 22, 1863, ibid.
(November 1863), p. 255; Cowden, p. 221.

[85]   John Phillips, Service Record.

[86]   See William T. Sherman, MEMOIRS OF GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN
(New York, 1875), I, pp. 387-405, for an account of this campaign.

[87]   ibid., p. 389

[88]   Robert S. Henry, "FIRST WITH THE MOST" FORREST (Indianapolis,
1944), p. 219.

[89]   Sherman had no use either for the later system of stationing
black troops along the Mississippi to protect contraband camps and
leased plantations, see Sherman to Gen. McPherson, March 11, 1864, and
Sherman to Thomas, March 11, 1864, OR, Ser. I, XXXII, iii, 55-57.

[90]   Carruthers  to [Secys. AMA], Dec. 1863, AMERICAN MISSIONARY
(Mar., 1864), pp. 67-68.  The exact date of Sherman's order is not
known, but he must have issued it before he returned to the Valley from
his Christmas leave.  The order is not included in OR.

[91]   Stevenson to Hurlbut, Jan. 12, 1864, OR, Ser. I, XXXII, ii, 76.

[92]   For the exchanges between Stevenson and Hurlbut over the
evacuation, see ibid., pp. 70-71, 76, 135, 180-181, 191;  Sherman
complained to Grant on Jan. 24, 1864:  "The Sixteenth Corps had become
so domiciled at Memphis and along the railroad that it is like pulling
teeth to get them started,..." ibid., p. 201.

[93]   Coffin, REMINISCENCES, p. 647.

[94]   Carruthers to [Secys. AMA], Dec. 1863, AMERICAN MISSIONARY
(Mar., 1864), pp. 67-68.

[95]  Olds to Whipple, Jan. 9, 1864, AMA.

[96]   ibid.; C.H. Cole, Special Order No. 1, 2nd series, Dec. 31,
1863, enclosed ibid.  How long Olds' supervision lasted is not known,
but his tenure appears to have been brief.

[97]   Olds to Whipple, Feb. 20, 1864, ibid.

[98]   Magill to Secys. AMA, Feb. 12, 1864, ibid.  Magill reported one
school in operation at the camp.

[99]   Olds to Starbuck, Feb. 16, 1864, ibid.

[100]  Olds to Whipple, Feb. 20, 1864, ibid.

[101]  Hay to Whipple, Mar. 7, 1864, ibid.

[102]  Olds to Whipple, Feb. 20, 1864, ibid.

[103]  For example, Mrs. Hay complained to Whipple of "...the idea
entertained by those appointed here that they can do nothing unless
everything is favorable."  She also remarked that Olds "is so anxious
to stand at the head of every enterprise and is so constantly turning
from one point to another that he seems to accomplish but little."
Hay to Whipple, Mar. 7, 1864, ibid.

[104]  Again, no records of the camps' populations seem to have
survived.

[105]  Alexander, of course, always maintained his innocence, and some
of his friends thought he was a victim of the War-Treasury struggle.
Alexander, Service Record;  Alexander, Pension Record.

[106]  Phillips, Service Record.

[107]  magill to Secys. AMA, Feb. 12, 1864, AMA.

[108]  Cowden, 59th Colored Infantry, pp. 222-224; Olds, Service
Record.

[109]  Good secondary accounts of the War-Treasury conflict in the
Mississippi Valley appear in Bell I. Wiley, SOUTHERN NEGROES,
1861-1865 (New Haven, 1938), pp. 222-229 and Vernon L. Wharton, THE
NEGRO IN MISSISSIPPI, 1865-1890 (Chapel Hill, 1947), pp. 32-38.  For
the Davis Bend story, see Wharton, pp. 38-42.


  Source:  John T. Hubbell, Editor.  CIVIL WAR HISTORY, pp. 5-22,
             Published Quarterly by The Kent State University Press,
             Vol. XX, March 1974, No. 1.