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Shieldsboro, Hancock Co, Miss,
July 19th 1867

Maj. A.W. Preston, AAG.

Sir:

We have the honor to submit the following in reply to your circular of June 3rd.

By the census of 1866 this county contained Whites 2684, Blacks 1290. The white population is now about 2800, the Black about 1500, the latter derived, chiefly, from the counties above.

According to the official list on the books of the Board of Police, approved & filed on the 1st April last, there was, at that time, 81 destitute widows & orphans in this county. On a personal [[strikethrough ?s [[strikethrough] scrutiny of this list, it is found imperfect and partial containing many names that should not be there, and omitting many that should be there. It illustrates the mal-administration, ignorance, imbecility and corruption that prevail here, and in other parts of the state. There are no schools, the school fund having all been squandered; no public improvements, no roads or bridges in repair, tho' the people are heavily taxed for all these purposes.

The error in the above official return is not in the number of indigent, but in the persons returned as such. There are at this moment about 150 persons, including colored people, in indigent circumstances, most of them dependent on the stinted charity of an impoverished community. These, for the most part, are widows and children who are incapable of labor, or if capable can find no employment. There are no factories, or other industrial institutions to give employment to this class, and the children grow up now, as they have done