19. The role of escaped and freed slaves
By the end of 1863, escaped slaves followed the Union Armies, straining logistics and forcing commanders to detail troops to guard them. Guards were necessary to protect against cavalry raids, aimed at recapturing the former slaves and returning them to the Confederacy. Some former slaves enlisted in the Union Army, where after training they were assigned to the segregated units which served with distinction. By the end of the war, they comprised nearly 10% of the Union Army. Hundreds of others served in the Union Navy, which by law was segregated, but in practice was not.
Slaves recaptured by the Confederate raids for the most part were redistributed in the Confederate Armies, all of which became desperately short of manpower in the last 18 months of the war. The need for labor in the army camps meant Southern commanders could not afford to return captured slaves to their owners. The practice became controversial in the south, with slave owners demanding the return of their “property” or compensation. The government lacked the means to provide any form of compensation. Confederate commanders were bedeviled by former owners demanding the return of their slaves, an act they could ill-afford even had they been so inclined.