Published on Thursday, February 9, 2012 - 5:27pm On Saturday,
February 25th, author Kenneth Daigler will discuss the important
contributions of runaway slaves (considered "contraband of
war"), slaves in place and free blacks to Union military
intelligence. Much intimate detail of terrain and geography was
known to locals that could not in any way be known to a Union
soldier. Careful watchers could provide an accurate order of
battle for Confederate armies. Free blacks posing as slaves
could gather a surprising amount of information. It was against
the law in most of the South to teach a slave to read and write,
so no one worried about leaving documents in the open. People
were careless about talking in front of the servants. By way of
a female Union agent in Richmond, a free black woman (originally
from Richmond, educated in the North) was placed as a slave in
the "Confederate White House". Given that she had a photographic
memory, it's hard to imagine a more valuable agent. Saturday,
February 25th, 1:30 PM,