Colored Army Teamsters, Cobb Hill, Virginia

Source: Colored army teamsters, Cobb Hill, Virginia. Virginia United States Bermuda Hundred, ca. 1890. [Hartford, Conn.: John C. Taylor, 17 Allen Place photographed 1864, printed ?] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2010651606/.

Date: 1864

Text/Transcription:

As Union forces progressed through Confederate territory, many enslaved persons fled to reach Union lines. While historical research typically has identified such individuals as “contraband of war,” a legal term used by General Benjamin F. Butler (1818-1893), today, scholars use the term “fugitive” to recognize agency in the actions of the enslaved person. Many of these self-emancipated people, like the men photographed in Cobb Hill, Virginia, in 1864, supported the war effort by driving the army’s supply wagons, cooking, and tending to the mules.