[182] On his own initiative, Grant set up a pragmatic program and hired a young Presbyterian Chaplain John Eaton to administer slave refuge work camps.[183] Compensated contraband freed slaves would be used to pick cotton that would be shipped north and sent to aid the Union war effort. Lincoln approved and Grant's camp program was successful.[184] Grant also worked freed black labor on the bypass canal and other points on the river, incorporating them into the Union Army and Navy.[185]

The Battle of Jackson, fought on May 14, 1863, was part of the Vicksburg Campaign.Published 1863
Grant's war responsibilities included combating an illegal Northern cotton trade and civilian obstruction.[186][187] Smuggling of cotton was rampant, while the price of cotton skyrocketed.[188] Grant believed the smuggling funded the Confederacy and provided them with military intelligence, while Union soldiers were dying in the fields.[189] He had received numerous dispatches with complaints about Jewish speculators in his district.[190] He also feared the trading corrupted many of his officers who were also eager to make a profit on a bale of cotton, while the majority of those involved in illegal trading was not Jewish.