*** Civil War runaway slaves contrbands boys








Civil War: Runaway Slaves--Boys and Youths

Civil War runaway boys
Figure 1.--The boy here is unidentified. He was photographed in the Federal camp at Haeper's Ferry, Virginia, now West Virginia. He looks to be anout 7-8 years old. He had been taken in by the 22nd New York and seems to be working as an aid to an officer, perhaps the commnding officer. Notice that he is holding the officer's sword in one hnd. We are not sure what he is holding his other hanbd, perhaps a cup of coffee.

Children also arived at Federal camps. When long distances were involved, nost of the runaways were men. It was virtully impossible for an entire family to escape, especially if there were young children. Of course many familkies were split by selling individuals, but many families were intact. As Federal armies moved further south more childen wre able to run away, either with their families or for older botys on their own. This ws especially true of boys that had been separated from their families. Boys who joined the union camp following could assist their parents or run errands or do favors for the soldiers. We see younger boys serving as servants to officers or perhaps or mascots to units. It is not always clear just who they are. And rgere is only limited literature about them. Some of the boys may have served as drummer boys for the black regiments. We think that many if not most of the black drummer boys were runaways. We think that most were probnly runaways rather than boys recrioted from the free northern black population. This needs, however, to be confirmed. Hopefully readers will know more about this.







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Created: 5:49 PM 12/6/2014
Last updated: 5:49 PM 12/6/2014