Hi Kate:

Thanks for adding to the military history of Harriet Tubman.

I have one more question about Harriet. Would she have been considered a contraband? In the strict military definition of the term during the Civil War?

I ask this because of my interest, inspired by Bennie's research, in the history of the contrabands and their contribution to the Union Army and Navy's defeat of the confederacy. The word contraband is a one dimensional definition and suggests spoils of war. However the legendary history of Tubman along with others, gives ex-slaves who fled to the Union lines a less passive profile.

K Wyer Lane