Sooy Smith defended himself against a report that he’d returned some escaped slaves to their former owners — from the context, it isn’t clear that this would always have been inappropriate, but in this case they had given the Union troops information and been promised asylum.
HEADQUARTERS, Huntsville, August 6, 1862.
General WILLIAM S. SMITH, Tullahoma:General Mitchel reports that slaves here to whom he promised protection for valuable information have been returned to their masters. Do you know of any slaves to whom protection was promised; if so, was the protection claimed by the slaves or any persons in their behalf; and, if so claimed, was it refused? Answer these questions specifically.
JAMES B. FRY,
Chief of Staff.***********************************************************************
TULLAHOMA, August 6, 1862.
Colonel J. B. FRY:There was one slave for whom protection was claimed, I think, by Captain Slocum, quartermaster, and another who brought information and was put on duty, I believe, as a train hand. Neither of them were given up to my knowledge. These were all the cases that came to my knowledge. My instructions from General Buell strictly forbade my giving up slaves who had brought in intelligence and thus rendered themselves liable to punishment from their masters, and in no case, to my knowledge, were they so given up.
W. S. SMITH,
General.