Freedmen Former Slave Report- Dept. of TN 1864

Report issued by Superintendent Gen. John Eaton on the status of "freedmen," formerly enslaved men, women, and children put under his charge by General Ulysses S. Grant. As General Grant swept across the Western Theatre of the war, former slaves joined Union forces and were given refuge. Realizing that the newly freed people were quickly beginning to number in the thousands, Gen. Grant tasked John Eaton to organize these "contrabands" so that they could be cared for properly. This report details efforts to educate the former slaves, their labor in assisting the Union war effort, and describes provisions needed to sustain them.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Abolition, Slavery, Abraham Lincoln]