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Special Orders No. 402 St. 28 War Dept of date July 27th 1865
Very Respectfully
Your Obt Servt

Maj & Asst Adjt Genl.
Brvt. Colonel U.S. Vols

Office Assistant Commissioner
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands
Montgomery, Ala. Nov. 6th 1865

Maj Gen. O.O. Howard
Commissioner R.F. & A.L.
Vicksburg, Miss.

General;
In accordance with your telegram of the 3rd inst. received at this office on the 5th I have directed Chaplain Buckley to proceed to Vicksburg. He has been connected with the Bureau in this State since I was last and is as well acquainted with affairs as any one except the General.
Your dispatch from Savannah was dated Nov 2nd (Wednesday) and received on the 3rd. It stated that you would be in Mobile on Wednesday or Thursday. Of course we understood that it was Wednesday or Thursday of this week. I am sorry for the evident mistake in the date of the telegram as it creates a rather long trip and that with the risk of missing you. The dispatch of your Aide de Camp of date 3rd was not received until the 5th too late to enable me to reach Mobile in time for Monday Train to Demopolis. It is therefore in practicable for Mr Buckley to reach Vicksburg before Friday.

There is no one here for one to leave in charge of the office or I would report to you myself. I think Mr Buckley can give you all the information you desire. I send by Mr Buckley for your action an estimate of expenses for the last month. I enclose a copy of Circular No 1 from this office in which an effort was made by the General to correct the impression in regard to lands noticed in your letter of the 30 inst form Mobile. The circular has done a great deal of good and Asst Supt in the State have been directed to send out good men to talk to the negroes and inform them of the true state of affairs. In this portion of the State the Freedmen are becoming disabused of their false ideas and most of them are contracting for another year. Favorable reports are received from other portions of the State in this relation.

If you are going through Nashville on your way to Washington and will notify Gen Swayne here he will no doubt go up there to meet you. I expect him back on Friday next.

Very Respectfully
Your Obt Servt

Bvt Col & A.A.G.

Office Assistant Commissioner
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands
Montgomery. Ala. Nov. 6th 1865

Stephen Coleman Esq
Justice of the Peace
Autaugaville, Ala,

Transcription Notes:
Reopened to fix the many errors reviewer missed.