Lucas cabin

[Jim Garrett]

(04-17-2013 07:34 PM)L Verge Wrote:  I have brain seizures all the time, but I can blame it on age!

Last night, I mentioned the story of Samuel Cox and his slave, Jack Scroggins, as something that would make Oswell Swann very leery of Col. Cox. In Southern Maryland, there were Yankee camps under Gen. Hooker and Gen. Sickles who were supposed to aid slaves seeking help and freedom. One famous incident involved Jack Scroggins. The slave had tipped off the Union troops that Cox had hidden large amounts of arms and ammunition in marsh land near his house. The slave then sought protection at the camp of the 70th New York, which was stationed about ten miles away at a hamlet called Hill Top.

Cox went to the camp and demanded that Scroggins be returned to him under the terms of the Fugitive Slave Act, which was still in force and protected by Lincoln as a way to keep Maryland in the Union. The officers obeyed the terms of the Act and returned Scroggins to Cox with the promise that the slave would not be punished.

As soon as the pair was out of sight of the troops, Cox tied Scroggins to the back of his saddle and forced the slave to run behind the horse. After awhile, the poor man was literally dragged back to Rich Hill. There, he was tied to a tree and beaten until unconscious. He was cut down and left to die where he fell.

You can be sure that the brutal story made the rounds in at least Charles County. Oswell Swann must have known about how dangerous Cox could be. However, he was a free man (a Wesort), and by 1865, would certainly have the protection of the military seeking information about Col. Cox. One of Cox's female house servants, however, gave statements that protected her former owner.

Ed Steers included this incident in his great book, Blood on the Moon.

That is such a great example and much thanks to Ed and Laurie here. The issue of how to deal with runaway slaves evolved with the penninsula campaign in the spring of 1862 when slaves came pouring into the Union camps around Fortress Monroe. It was this situation that had them declared "contrabands of war", but that didn't apply in Maryland as Laurie pointed out.