Camp Greene (Washington, D.C.)

Fleeing slavery, many escaped bondsmen and newly freed people made their way north, behind Union Army lines into northern cities.

In the metropolitan District of Columbia area, a camp called Freeman's Village was established on the Arlington Estate, but was soon overcrowded and disease-ridden.

[1][3] Two of the recruits were Henry Bailey and John Chen, who escaped slavery in Suffolk and Caroline County, Virginia.

A detachment of Massachusetts troops were brought in to protect the recruits after they were attacked in June by a gang who found out where they were located.

Blacks would serve as regular soldiers, not volunteers, and by June 30, ten more companies were formed with 700 men and stationed on the island.

[4] The black troops received 77% of the amount paid to white soldiers, they were subject to much harsher punishment, and many had to drill with broomsticks.

[4] Camp Greene recruits, which grew to about 1,000 soldiers at any one time, attended the Israel Bethel Church within Washington, D.C.[4] Walt Whitman was one of the people that came to the island to visit the troops.