There were several irregulars who did a lot of things the regulars couldn't do, and a little lucrative slave dealing on the side was liable to make up for the family farm biting the dust! Forrest, who certainly knew everything there was to know about his business, had very harsh penalties for anyone caught selling someone, whether they were free or not. If not, they had an owner who was out of pocket whatever they were worth, and he was very sensitive about that. That's why he took his slaves to war with him - 47 prime field hands at market value of the time represented at minimum about 125,000 investment. Yep...taking this with me!