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Office Assistant Commissioner 
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen 
and Abandoned Lands
Montgomery, Ala. Aug 28th 1865

Maj Gen O.O. Howard 
Commissioner &c
Washington, D,C.
[[left margin]] Last week's report  [[/left margin]]
General; 
I wrote you on Monday last some what fully;  and sent my report by Mr D.C. Anderson, who was enroute for Washington. I am somewhat distrustful of the Mails as I am still without even any of your 6 circulars of later  date No 9. a fact 
[[left margin]] No Circulars received [[/left margin]]
which I telegraphed to you last week. but it might have involved me in same delinquency.
Last week a friend gave me a copy of your speech in Augusta and in studying your views, I observe
[[left margin]] Superintendent of Schools [[/left margin]]
that you speak  of having given to each Assistant Commissioner a State Superintendent of Schools. I have no such officer or order authorizing the appointment and for want of such could not push the cause of Education as I wanted to. During the past week I have fully considered the matter at Mobile. There is but one good public school building there. That will be wanted for white children. The colored schools, nine in number with six hundred pupils, are now established in the Medical College, which also affords comfortable quarters for the teachers, and has yet more room. 
Before the explosion the Trustees offered to let us have this building for two years, if a new roof could be put on at a cost of $2,000. Now it would take $1,000 more to make it fit for winter. 
To put the education of colored children in so important a place as Mobile on a 

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secure and permanent basis I thought worth a sacrifice. I asked a prominent colored man of Mobile whether they would raise $1,000 for this object and he thought they would. I then wrote to ask whether the Trustees would let us have the building for two years for $2,000 and themselves put it in complete repair, or whether they would let us have it for three years for $3,000 to be applied by us in repairs. By next week I shall be able to inform you more fully, meanwhile I hope on receipt of this you will telegraph me if this has your approval. 
[[left margin]] Telegraph asked for Montgomery school [[/left margin]] 
Here, I had a Confederate Hospital let, with a good high fence and three suitable buildings, which with a few windows and some whitewash will do admirably. The colored people will put in the benches. The attendance at the school here has risen to two hundred. 
[[left margin]] Wetumpka school [[/left margin]] At Wetumpka the colored people have a good teacher of their own and are about to buy a cheap lot. They want me to help them with a temporary building. There is no proper place for rent. 
[[left margin]] Teachers wanted [[/left margin]] Elsewhere I have done little about schools for want of teachers. These could be had here if we had means, and when I have a good Superintendent, I think we can get there anyhow. It would be a great thing if the interests of the service would permit a soldier to be so employed, with his own consent. The freedmen would do all the rest. 
[[left margin]] Confiscable property [[/left margin]] During the past week I have placed in the hands of the U.S. District Attorney here, Mr John Q Smith descriptions of the property in this City which was built or occupied by the rebel government. He assures me that he will at once levy on