Get-ChildItem and Copy-Item explanation
You are not looping over each item in the collection of files/folders, but passing the last value to the pipe. You need to use Foreach-item or % to the Copy-Item command. From there, you also do not need the second -recurse switch as you already have every item in the GCI.
try this:
gci $from -Recurse | % {copy-item -Path $_ -Destination $to -Force -Container }
Here is what worked for me
Get-ChildItem -Path .\ -Recurse -Include *.txt | %{Join-Path -Path $_.Directory -ChildPath $_.Name } | Copy-Item -Destination $to
This works for me:
Get-ChildItem 'c:\source\' -Recurse | % {Copy-Item -Path $_.FullName -Destination 'd:\Dest\' -Force -Container }