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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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