Freedman's Camp

After the establishment of Camp Greene and deployment of the 1st United States Colored Troops (USCT), the camp was used for the housing of newly drafted servicemen and officers before deployment. During this time, Camp Greene was expanded to include new permanent structures such as barracks, hospitals, cookhouse, mess house, guard house, officers’ quarters, stables, and an icehouse. In November of 1863, over 800 enlisted men and 33 officers were living on the island preparing for deployment. As the draft was coming to an end in the spring of 1864, the camp on the island was closed to newly enlisted men and vacated.

 

Undated plan of the Freedmen camp on Theodore Roosevelt Island. 

From May 1864 until June 1865 the camp was repurposed for housing people newly freed or escaped from enslavement who were searching for employment in Washington, DC. It quickly grew to be grossly overcrowded and the War Department did little to maintain it. The conditions at Camp Greene were so bad that hundreds of people died due to malnutrition and disease. The camp was not set up to handle the large numbers of people who sought refuge there. This led to the War Department allowing some of the camp inhabitants to practice subsistence farming on the island to alleviate these conditions. Camp conditions improved slightly with assistance from the Quaker Association of Friends who provided food, clothing, hospital support, a school, and other basic needs to those living on the island.

 

Contraband

The status of African Americans as freedmen was not legally established until the passage of the 13th amendment in December of 1865. Until that point, the Union military labeled newly freed people as “contrabands (property) of war.” This is why many camps established during this time, like at Camp Greene, have been referred to as contraband or freedman’s camps.

 

Large stones that are suspected of being foundations for the Contraband Camp quarters.

NPS

By late 1865, many had fled the poor conditions of the camp and only 500 refugees remained on the island. The War Department made plans to relocate those remaining to the nearby Freedman’s village at Arlington House. After the camp was closed the government returned the land to the previous owner, William A. Bradley, and some of the buildings were either repaired or sold off to settle losses sustained by Bradley during the war. Maps and photographs from this time show a large number of buildings on the island, and records from the island describe work done to repair these buildings. Although there is significant documentation of where these buildings were located, little evidence of these buildings exists today. Archeologically all that remains of the extensive infrastructure built during this time are the foundations of the stables and some large stones that could have been used for building foundations at the camp. More could have been preserved of the camp if not for the significant work done on the island during the 1930s as part of work done preparing the island as a memorial to Theodore Roosevelt. Following the Civil War, the use of the island declined significantly, but it still remained as a focal point for local activities and events.