nd camps.[25]

A better system of handling the fugitives was finally worked out, however,
with a general superintendent at the head of each department, supported by
a number of competent assistants. More explicit instructions were given as
to the manner of dealing with the situation. It was to be the duty of the
superintendent of contrabands, says the order, to organize them into
working parties in saving the cotton, as pioneers on railroads and
steamboats, and in any way where their services could be made available.
Where labor was performed for private individuals they were charged in
accordance with the orders of the commander of the department. In case
they were directed to save abandoned crops of cotton for the benefit of
the United States Government, the officer selling such crops would turn
over to the superintendent of contrabands the proceeds of the sale, which
together with other earnings were used for clothing and feeding the
Negroes. Clothing sent by philanthropic persons to these camps was
received and distributed by the superintendent. In no case, however, were
Negroes to be forced into the service of the United States Government or
to be enticed away from their homes except when it became a military
necessity.[26]

Some order out of the chaos eventually developed, for as John Eaton, one
of the workers in the West, reported: "There was no promiscuous
intermingling. Families were established by themselves. Every man took
care of his own wife and children." "One of the most touching features of
our Work," says he, "was the eagerness with which colored men and women
availed themselves of the opportunities offered them to legalize unions
already formed, some of which had been in existence for a long time."[27]
"Chaplain A.S. Fiske on one occasion married in about an hour one hundred
and nineteen couples at one service, chiefly those who had long lived
together." Letters from the Virginia camps and from those of Port Royal
indicate that this favorable condition generally obtained.[28]

This unusual problem in spite of additional effort, however, would not
readily admit of solution. Benevolent workers of the North, therefore,
began to minister to the needs of these unfortunate blacks. They sent
considerable sums of money, increasing quantities of clothing and even
some of their most devoted men and women to toil among them as social
workers and teachers.[29] These efforts also took organized form in
various pa