THE NEGRO AT THE CLOSE OF THE CIVIL WAR 5
there impossible to hold the slaves at work, for
they could leave home easily and go to the free
states or follow the armies. So in the border
states or near the military frontier, the master
who would control his labor at all was obliged
to give his slaves what was practically a free
status. While the effect of the war in these regions
 was mainly to disorganize the slave system
and to demoralize the workers, the latter had
nevertheless by 1865 made some progress toward
looking out for themselves.
NEGRO LABOR UNDER FEDERAL SUPERVISION
The occupation by the Union armies of large
districts in the South affected thousands of slaves
in addition to those who were enlisted in the
Union army. Their masters, if Confederate sympathizers,
 were driven from home; the country
was laid waste by the contending armies; and
the responsibility for the care of the slaves left
behind was thus thrown upon the Federal commanders.
 At first the homeless, masterless people
were neglected; later they were allowed to form
refugee camps near large military posts and
scanty rations were doled out to them. But their
numbers increased so rapidly, their sufferings
were so great, and their presence was so embarrassing
 to the movement of the Federal forces,
that each principal commander organized for his
army or for his district a sort of “Department of
Negro Affairs” to take charge of the slaves who
were captured or who came within the Federal
lines as refugees.
General Benjamin F, Butler, at Fortress Mon-