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 re- 
gions 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 sym- 
pathizers, 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 com- 
manders. 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 embar- 
rassing 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-