Commanding General George B. McClellan Espouses a Policy of Using the Labor of Black Slaves to Aid His Forces on the Virginia Peninsula in 1862

Yet he still maintained that slaveowners must be compensated for the lose of their “property”

 

This is the first letter of McClellan on the subject of contrabands that we can ever recall seeing reach the market

With Union armed forces moving South and establishing positions in Confederate territory, the issue of what to do with slaves arose very quickly. Slaves were the most conspicuous and valuable property in the region. They raised food and fiber for the Southern war effort, worked in munitions factories, and served as teamsters and laborers in the Confederate Army. General Benjamin Butler, commander of Union forces occupying a foothold in Virginia at Fortress Monroe on the mouth of the James River, provided a legal rationale for the seizure of slave property. When three slaves who had worked on rebel fortifications escaped to Butler’s lines in May 1861, he declared them contraband of war and refused to return them to their Confederate owner. Here was an opening wedge for emancipation, and hundreds of such “contrabands” voted with their feet for freedom by escaping to Union lines in subsequent months. Some Union commanders gave them shelter and protection; others returned them to masters who could prove their loyalty to the United States.

To reduce the ambiguity of this situation, on August 6, 1861, Congress passed the First Confiscation Act, which authorized Union seizure of rebel property. It stated that all slaves who fought with or worked for the Confederate military services were freed of further obligations to their masters. It placed the slaves in Union custody, but did not settle their status. Lincoln signed the act. Just 24 days after the First Confiscation Act was passed, Union General John C. Fremont, seeing it as a license to take action, issued a proclamation freeing all slaves in Missouri (which was under his command) that belonged to secessionists. In a letter dated September 11, 1861, Lincoln ordered Fremont to change his proclamation to conform to the First Confiscation Act. The letter was widely published in the newspapers, and appearing to signal Lincoln’s opposition to freeing slaves, resulted in Lincoln receiving many letters condemning his decision and expressing support for Fremont. A Second Confiscation Act bill was introduced in December 1861, which took a stronger abolition stand, so by 1862 it was clear an additional, broader act was coming.

By May of 1862, the trickle of contrabands who found themselves living within the Union lines, or escaping into them, became a flood. Union General David Hunter issued a proclamation similar to Fremont’s freeing slaves in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. Again, Lincoln was forced to issue a statement revoking the proclamation. He concluded his statement, however, by again urging the slave-holding border states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri to “‘adopt a gradual abolishment of slavery,'” as encouraged by Congress’s Joint Resolution of March 1862: He warned slaveholders, ”You can not if you would, be blind to the signs of the times…” On July 17, 1862, the Second Confiscation Act would pass, declaring that slaves who crossed over Union lines were “forever free”.

The Peninsula Campaign was a Union offensive that took place from March through July 1862, with the intention of capturing Richmond. The strategic concept was the brainchild of Union Army Commander-in-Chief General George B. McClellan, who felt his Army of the Potomac could avoid high casualties by not marching south on Richmond from northern Virginia, but rather, by moving by water. The Army of the Potomac had approximately 50,000 men at Fort Monroe when McClellan arrived, but this number grew to 121,500 before hostilities began. Transporting these men, almost 15,000 horses, and mules, and 1,150 wagons was an enormous task. It required 113 steamships, 188 schooners, and 88 barges. Though the plan seemed extremely sound and its advantages seemingly made McClellan’s forces unstoppable, he would not achieve his goals. McClellan was initially successful against General Joseph E. Johnston, but the emergence of General Robert E. Lee changed the character of the campaign and turned it into a humiliating Union defeat. It was in these final battles, known as the Seven Days Battles, occurring from June 25 to July 1, 1862, with Lee in command of the Confederates, that the tides were turned to McClellan on the defense.

Amidst these actions, contrabands swarmed into Union lines, and their work was desperately needed to move all the men, wagons, guns and supplies. McClellan wanted to use them, but he was not in favor of depriving slaveowners of their property. So he developed a theory that would allow him to make use of the contrabands, while not “stealing” their work from their owners.

On July 7, 1862, McClellan stated his position in a letter to President Lincoln. He wrote that the Union cause of preserving freedom and defeating secession must not be abandoned. Yet the war should be waged only against the Confederate Army and leadership – in other words, the Union must not interfere with individual slaveowners and their property. “Slaves contraband under the act of Congress, seeking military protection, should receive it. The right of the Government to appropriate permanently to its own service claims of slave-labor should be asserted, and the right of the owner to compensation therefore should be recognized.” McClellan insisted that such a policy would cultivate loyalty among slaveholders and “deeply impress the rebel masses.”

General Andrew Porter was an important staff officer under George B. McClellan during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign, serving as Provost Marshal of the Army of the Potomac. As a colonel, Henry Hunt was on McClellan’s staff, organizing and training the artillery reserve of the Army of the Potomac during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign. He went on to become Chief of Artillery of the Army of the Potomac.

Autograph letter signed, the Virginia Peninsula, with a penciled in date of June 1862, to Porter. “My dear Porter, Cannot some of the contraband be turned over to Hunt as teamsters – he needs the badly.”

The contrabands were put to use, but the problem they posed for Union leadership was not settled until the Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863.

This is the first letter of McClellan on the subject of contrabands that we can ever recall seeing reach the market. It is also an uncommon letter of McClellan from the Peninsula, being just our third in all these years. It comes from a significant collection put together over half a century ago.