The Confiscation Act was, as I recall, mainly designed to provide clear legal authority for Union forces that they were not to return slaves who escaped to Union lines to their Southern owners. It was generally seen as one of the precursors to the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which established that all slaves in areas of the Confederacy still in rebellion on Jan. 1, 1863 would be "forever free."
After the War, there were those in Congress who argued that large Confederate landowners should forfeit their land. Lincoln had opposed any such measure, as being contrary to goals of reconciliation, and Andrew Johnson's Presidential Reconstruction plan was explicit that no property other than slaves (no longer even legally property because of the 13th Amendment) was to be forfeited. It does not appear that there was ever a Congressional majority close to supporting land forfeiture and redistribution.
Very interesting to hear of "old Yankees" (literally) -- as is often the case, the winning side tends to move on and it's the losing side that dwells on battles and wars lost, so one doesn't hear those sorts of stories as often as on the Southern side of the Mason - Dixon line.