ing heard this statement, Gen. Butler, viewing the matter
from a purely military stand-point, exclaimed: "These men are
_contraband_ of war; set them at work." Here was a solution of the
entire problem; here was a blow delivered at the backbone of the
Rebellion. He claimed no right to act as a politician, but acting as a
loyal-hearted, clear-headed _soldier_, he coined a word and hurled a
shaft at the enemy that struck him in a part as vulnerable as the heel
of Achilles. In his letter to the Lieut.-Gen. of the Army, Winfield
Scott, 27th of May, 1861, he said:

"Since I wrote my last, the question in regard to slave property
is becoming one of very serious magnitude. The inhabitants of
Virginia are using their negroes in the batteries, and are
preparing to send their women and children South. The escapes
from them are very numerous, and a squad has come in this
morning, and my pickets are bringing in their women and children.
Of course these can not be dealt with upon the theory on which I
designed to treat the services of able-bodied men and women who
might come within my lines, and of which I gave you a detailed
account in my last dispatch.

"I am in the utmost doubt what to do with this species of
property. Up to this time I have had come within my lines men and
women, with their children,--entire families,--each family
belonging to the same owner. I have therefore determined to
employ--as I can do very profitably--the able-bodied persons in
the party, issuing proper food for the support of all; charging
against their services the expense of care and sustenance of the
non-laborers; keeping a strict and accurate account, as well of
the services as of the expenditures; having the worth of the
services and the cost of the expenditures determined by a board
of survey hereafter to be detailed. I know of no other manner in
which to dispose of this subject and the questions connected
therewith. As a matter of property, to the insurgents it will be
of very great moment--the number that I now have amounting, as I
am informed, to what in good times would be of the value of
$60,000.

"Twelve of these negroes, I am informed, have escaped from the
erection of the batteries on Sewell's Point, which fired upon my
expedition as it passed by out of range. As a means of offense,
there