"Contraband" to Community

"Contraband" to Community. A Fitting Tribute. , The Entire Block to Your Left was once a Civil War-era camp and hospital for formerly enslaved African Americans, After the Civil War broke out in 1861, thousands walked away from bondage. When some sought shelter at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, Union General Benjamin Butler allowed them to stay as “contrabands of war” or captured enemy property. Soon men, women, and children poured into Washington and other Union territories seeking new lives. In 1862, as housing near the Capitol and Navy Yard was overwhelmed, the Army relocated the formerly enslaved to wooden barracks built here for Captain Charles Bakers' Chicago Dragoons., In 1862 Camp Barker reportedly housed 4,000 people. Overcrowding led to deadly epidemics, despite the camp's health facility. Contraband (later Freedmen's Hospital), was led by Major Alexander T. Augusta, M.D. the nation's first African American commissioned medical officer. Many refugees left for Freedmen's Village. Others remained here, in a growing community., President Abraham Lincoln occasionally visited Camp Barker from his summer retreat at the Soldiers' Home, about 2.5 miles northeast. Mary Dines, who escaped bondage in Maryland and lived at the camp cooked for Lincoln at his retreat. She sang in a concert organize at the camp for the president and guests., Vermont Avenue Baptist Church, just ahead to the right, was founded to serve the community seeded by Camp Barker. The politically active church attracted eminent speakers. In 1956 the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke to the congregation.