Lee and the ANV's treatment of civilians in Penn

Here's something I read awhile back. I've read some similar stuff elsewhere.

http://vshadow.vcdh.virginia.edu/personal/gloryland.html
"The worst time for local people came during the invasion of 1863. Confederate foraging squads gathered not only horses, sheep, and cattle but Negroes to be sent back into Virginia. They were supposed to capture only runaway slaves, but anyone with colored skin was in danger of being sent back to the slave markets or plantations of Virginia. When foragers came, blacks fled into nearby fields and wooded areas as mounted horsemen pursued and hunted them down. Sometimes local whites would identify the captives as freemen who had lived in the area for years and in most cases these were released.

In Greencastle, town officials were forced to accompany Confederate foragers to help identify fugitive slaves who lived in the area. One councilman, Charles Hartman, pressed into such service, was forced to walk most of one day to assist in hunting down these unfortunate people. In the end the local official and the Southerners found none. The councilman could vouch for all the blacks they found. The exhausted Hartman never recovered from this ordeal and within a year he died, an unsung hero of this dismal affair."

Thanks for this source, though I wish it were footnoted so we can see what sources he used. Bill Conrad, sadly, passed away. He and Ted Alexander wrote a book some years back called When War Passed This Way, and I've used it before, though not for this subject. I'll have to try to look for it again.
 
Here's something I read awhile back. I've read some similar stuff elsewhere.

http://vshadow.vcdh.virginia.edu/personal/gloryland.html
"One councilman, Charles Hartman, pressed into such service, was forced to walk most of one day to assist in hunting down these unfortunate people. In the end the local official and the Southerners found none. The councilman could vouch for all the blacks they found."

As described, that seems like an oddly pointless exercise. I'll give Hartman credit, but I'm surprised he was able to pull it off. If one wants to find "runaways," I'd think one would get another councilman as soon as one noticed this one would vouch for every man he found. If you want to find runaways (real ones), I'd also think you'd get another councilman when it became clear this one wasn't very good at finding them.

Curious about how the writer got this information, I searched and it looks like Hartman left a diary:

"One of the exciting features of the day was the scouring of the fields about town and searching of houses for negroes," he remarked. "These poor creatures, those of them who had not fled upon the approach of the foe, [were] concealed in wheat fields around the town." He went on to note that the "cavalrymen rode in search of them and many of them were caught after a desperate chase and being fired at."

That's from The Rashness of That Hour, Roberta Wynstra, p. 176-177, footnoted to "Charles Hartman Diary Typescript, Entry for June 22, 1863, Allison-Antrim Museum, Greencastle, Pennsylvania."

The only other part of his diary quoted there is: "Heavy demands were made upon us for salt, meat, onions, and such... Also bridles and saddles, harness. The town council was held till their demands were complied with... the hardest day in all my life." But it sounds like there's more detail available in the actual diary.

Some of the other cites also look interesting:

For details on the slave-hunting activities in Doles' Brigade, see Lucious T. C. Lovelace to Dear Father, June 23, 1863, in War Was the Place, 89-90; Thomas M. Hightower to Dear Lou, June 22, 1863; thomas M. Hightower Letters, Georgia Archives, Morrow, Georgia...; and John T. Gay to Dear Pussie, June 23, 1863, Mary Barnard Nix Collection, Special Collections Division, Hargrett Library, Univeristy of Georgia, Athens, Georgia.

On a separate note, I'm not sure if it's been brought up in this thread already, but the whole Chambersburg-Carlisle area of Pennsylvania in general had been famous, or infamous, for being an underground railroad center and there had been several violent attacks on slave-catchers over the years that made the news, plus the big Christiana incident, farther to the east in 1851. So there may have been a sense that "every" black in southern Pennsylvania was a runaway, just because it was so well known for supporting runaways.
 
Does anyone know a source for Charles Hartman's diary? I believe there has been some cherry picking of quotes, by some historians.

We were typing at the same time, but if it's not online or already published in reprint somewhere, the museum where the author I quoted found it, might mail a copy of the typescript for copying costs and a small donation.

http://www.greencastlemuseum.org/

According to their website, it was a gift from Tom Brumbaugh, a relative of Hartman. Don't know whether he holds the original?

Hopefully somebody knows of a transcript of the whole thing online, which would make it much easier to access.
 
We were typing at the same time, but if it's not online or already published in reprint somewhere, the museum where the author I quoted found it, might mail a copy of the typescript for copying costs and a small donation.

http://www.greencastlemuseum.org/

According to their website, it was a gift from Tom Brumbaugh, a relative of Hartman. Don't know whether he holds the original?

Hopefully somebody knows of a transcript of the whole thing online, which would make it much easier to access.

It seems the round up of blacks from Hartman's diary is quoted but the part where they are released is omitted. H-m-m-m.
 
Also, note the point that the councilman was asked to point out where fugative slaves were living and not blacks..And why would he have to vouch for them if the Confederate order was to capture all blacks irregardless of their status.. To play Devils advocate... maybe Confederates were under orders to only capture fugatives but if there was no one watching over them or not to many witnesses they grabbed any black they found..
 
Also, note the point that the councilman was asked to point out where fugative slaves were living and not blacks..And why would he have to vouch for them if the Confederate order was to capture all blacks irregardless of their status.. To play Devils advocate... maybe Confederates were under orders to only capture fugatives but if there was no one watching over them or not to many witnesses they grabbed any black they found..
Unless the Black had papers with him, the rebels assumed they were runaways. Thus jusifying that they were were only taking runaways.
 
maybe Confederates were under orders to only capture fugatives but if there was no one watching over them or not to many witnesses they grabbed any black they found..

I think that sounds pretty reasonable, considering human nature. Any group will have a variety of people more or less committed to following the letter of the law, but from the blacks' point of view, it only takes a few soldiers who are willing to grab anyone, to create an atmosphere where even free blacks are afraid.

Edited to add: And what Pat said. Where the burden of proof lies, makes a difference. Though the second- or third-hand summary of Hartman's diary seems to indicate at least some soldiers were willing to take local citizens' word for who was free.
 
Unless the Black had papers with him, the rebels assumed they were runaways. Thus jusifying that they were were only taking runaways.
Just a thought but if a black was born in the North, what papers would they have? Would they perhaps go by accents, which I would think were much more pronounced then they are today..
I think that sounds pretty reasonable, considering human nature. Any group will have a variety of people more or less committed to following the letter of the law, but from the blacks' point of view, it only takes a few soldiers who are willing to grab anyone, to create an atmosphere where even free blacks are afraid.

Edited to add: And what Pat said. Where the burden of proof lies, makes a difference. Though the second- or third-hand summary of Hartman's diary seems to indicate at least some soldiers were willing to take local citizens' word for who was free.
And my point is would the soldiers even ask if they were under orders to capture all blacks..
 
Here's the excerpt from Dave Smith's article I mentioned in the thread on the practicality of Lee's moving around the AotP.

"Lee's concern for the farmers of the Shenandoah Valley and their ability to feed his forces may also help explain why soldiers from every part of Lee's army apprehended (and, in many cases, returned to Virginia) fugitive slaves and even captured Northern free blacks when the army was in Pennsylvania. This activity was not aberrational, as has been claimed, but involved soldiers from every part of Lee's army. Some of this activity was motivated by a simple desire to recover fugitives, or efforts to exact retaliation against a population not protected by the General Orders Lee issued when the army entered Pennsylvania. It also appears, however, that capturing Afrian Americans and sending them to the Shenandoah Valley may have been a part of Lee's strategy to increase and protect that region's productive capacity." [David G. Smith, " 'Clear the Valley': The Shenandoah Valley and the Genesis of the Gettysburg Campaign," The Journal of Military History, Vol. 74, No. 4, October, 2010, p. 1095]
 
Here's the excerpt from Dave Smith's article I mentioned in the thread on the practicality of Lee's moving around the AotP.

"Lee's concern for the farmers of the Shenandoah Valley and their ability to feed his forces may also help explain why soldiers from every part of Lee's army apprehended (and, in many cases, returned to Virginia) fugitive slaves and even captured Northern free blacks when the army was in Pennsylvania. This activity was not aberrational, as has been claimed, but involved soldiers from every part of Lee's army. Some of this activity was motivated by a simple desire to recover fugitives, or efforts to exact retaliation against a population not protected by the General Orders Lee issued when the army entered Pennsylvania. It also appears, however, that capturing Afrian Americans and sending them to the Shenandoah Valley may have been a part of Lee's strategy to increase and protect that region's productive capacity." [David G. Smith, " 'Clear the Valley': The Shenandoah Valley and the Genesis of the Gettysburg Campaign," The Journal of Military History, Vol. 74, No. 4, October, 2010, p. 1095]

Does he go on to say why that appears to be so?
 
Does he go on to say why that appears to be so?
If it was part of a overall plan to protect and increase the productiviity capacity, then there should be some reports or orders, stating how and where these prisoners should be used, and perhaps progress reports on whether the plan was working.. This puts forth a different theory by this author then we have been discussing here, that blacks were being captured for certain reasons specifically...Interesting stuff....
 
Just a 'note'... officer can be anything from an acting second lieutenant on up to General. How experienced and or how that individual saw 'honor' and 'duty' would make a difference, in my personal opinion.

M. E. Wolf
 
This is from Jackson's Second Manassas report. Jackson is describing the captures at Manassas Junction. I thought it might be interesting.

"...Notwithstanding the Federal fire of musketry and artillery our infantry dispersed the troops placed there for the defense of the place, and captured 8 guns, with 72 horses, equipments, and ammunition complete, immense supplies of commissary and quartermaster's stores, upward of 200 new tents; and General Trimble also reports the capture of over 300 prisoners and 175 horses, exclusive of those belonging to the artillery, besides recovering over 200 negroes..."
 
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