If my name ever goes into history, it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it.
— A. Lincoln, 1863Contraband Camps
The city of Washington was also a refuge for escaped slaves, and Lincoln visited some of the contraband camps where the fugitives lived. Early in the war, Union generals informally had established the policy that slaves who escaped to behind the Union Army lines would be considered "contraband of war," and would not be returned to their masters. (President Lincoln later made this a formal policy, although he initially opposed it.) Many of these escaped slaves stayed in Washington, living in Army camps, in special camps set up by the government, or in unofficial settlements. The new arrivals joined a large community of free African Americans living in and around the city.
Mary Dines, an escaped slave, described at least two occasions when the President visited the contraband camp where she lived, which was located near the President's route between the White House and the Soldiers' Home. She reported that the President and Mrs. Lincoln, accompanied by a few guests, went to the camp to hear songs that the residents had prepared for them, and seemed quite moved by the performance. The President returned for a more informal visit later, and joined the residents in prayer and song.1
By living at the cottage at the Soldiers' Home, President Lincoln seems to have had the opportunity to see wartime sights he might not have experienced had he lived in the White House year-round. While he did not record his impressions of the contraband camps, hospitals, cemeteries, and forts he visited, one can easily imagine that these vivid experiences made the costs and consequences of the Civil War very real to him.