Slave-catching, whether or not it was officially sanctioned, was without question widely and officially tolerated. Three days later, Longstreet’s adjutant, in a dispatch to General Pickett, made note that “The captured contrabands had better be brought along with you for further disposition.” The number of free or fugitive blacks condemned to slavery during these weeks can only be estimated, but widespread testimony suggests that it was in the hundreds. Of various ugly incidents stemming from Lee’s Pennsylvania invasion, this was surely the ugliest.28
