ABSTRACT
Throughout the war enslaved people ran away from their masters in the hope of finding freedom and protection behind Union lines. As we have seen, Union leaders reacted to fleeing slaves with a range of policies, from treating them as fugitives from justice to welcoming runaways as newly emancipated. With the end of the fighting, however, their status as free men and women was settled. In late 1865 and throughout 1866 the central concern became how to provide basic necessities for the former slaves.
