Contraband Camps Photos include: BIshop Willam Henry Elder, third Bishop of Natchez from 1857-1880. 1863 Contraband Camp: Camp Parapet in Jefferson Parish outside New Orleans, LA. Immediately upon the arrival of Federal troops to Natchez, former slaves - referred to as contraband - flocked into the city. By August 16, 1863, the New York Times estimated the number of Freedmen seeking refuge in Natchez at 6,000. While able bodied men quickly enlisted in the regiments of the U.S. Colored Troops, the women, children, elderly and infirmed were placed in makeshift settlements located just north of the Union barracks, stretching along the banks of the Mississippi River. Bishop Elders diary is filled with notations of his visits to the camps along the river - as well as to separate contraband hospitals. Elder baptized sick infants and gave last rites to the scores of freedmen that perished daily in the suffocating, filthy, disease ridden settlements.
Posted on: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 15:59:11 +0000
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