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Bureau Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands.
Office State Superintendent of Education
Vicksburg, Miss., April 3, 1866.

Lieut. Stuart Eldridge,
A.A.A. General &c.

Lieutenant_ I have inspected the Orphan Asylum at this place yesterday and today.

So many children have been bound out, and turned over to friends, that the number now in the Asylum is not quite 100. There is a great demand for the children; and a great deal of care is necessary, lest they be given to improper parties.

Parties who take children promise to have them educated. But what security, beyond this promise, have we or the children that they shall really be taught? Perhaps circumstances will not permit of our getting any better guarantees than we now have; but better are desirable.

The institution is well managed, and the house clean. There has been an improvement in regard to religious services.

Your obt. servant,
Joseph Warren
State Subt. of Education,
&c.

Transcription Notes:
the children are bound out (as apprentices), not found out