Good post, Bruce. The issue of having to return slaves is an interesting curiousity during the war. The Emancipation Proclamation only freed the slaves in the Confederate States. I heard once that the District of Columbia had 3500 slaves throughout the war -- don't know the accuracy of that but found it interesting that the slaves in the states that did not secede and in the territories where not officially freed until the end of the war.

By the way, the Ross faction of the Cherokee Nation (constituents of Principal Chief John Ross) voted to rescend the treaty with the Confederacy and freed all slaves in the Cherokee Nation in the second half of 1862 -- not long after Drew's 1st Cherokee Mtd Rifles (CSA) defected and filled the ranks of the 2nd and 3rd Indian Home Guards (US). The Southern Cherokee declared themselves the true Cherokee Nation and elected Brig Gen Stand Watie as principal chief so there were two Cherokee Nations. At the end of the war, both factions had diplomats in Washington, each claiming to be the true representatives of the nation.

Ken