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War Department,
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands,
Washington, August 30th 1867

Bt. Maj. Gen. N. A. Miles
Ass't Commissioner

General:

I am directed to acknowledge receipt of your telegram of the 26th inst asking if orders have been issued to stop the issue of rations to the destitute, and stating that the Chief Commissary of the District has declined to fill requisitions, and in reply to say that the Commissioner designs to fall back upon his original order to issue only to those in regularly organized hospitals and asylums.

It is the desire of the Commissioner that the State and County authorities should be induced to assume
immediately the charge and support of their own poor, as the government cannot be expected to do so always.

Very Respectfully
Your Obt Servant
A. P. Ketchum
A.A.A. General

Transcription Notes:
is the name "A.P. Ketchman" or "Ketchmann" ? "Ketchum"--hard to read, isn't it? "Obt" for "Obedient" in closing--a formal ending of a letter of the time period