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18 I am satisfied the privilege has been abused and is still so I shall do all I can to stop it. This matter also will be made the subject of special consideration and report. I am satisfied this is the best place for me to be. Yet it is a great hindrance to me as well as to civil Government that Department Headquarters are thirty hours distant, and that there is only bi-weekly communication. I can neither get proper details nor learn where the troops are so that I can establish agencies. I am, General, Very Respectfully, Your Obedient Servant Brig. Gen and Asst. Commissioner Office Assistant Commissioner Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands Montgomery, Ala. Sept. 4th 1865 Maj Gen O.O. Howard Commissioner &c Washington, D.C. [[left margin]] Last week's report Brvt Col C Cadle [[/left margin]] General, I forwarded to you on Monday last, my usual weekly report, by mail. During the week I have been rejoiced by the arrival of Brevet Col Cadle, Asst Adjt Genl assigned to me some time since at my own request preferred through you. The scarcity of officers is our most severe want just now, and his arrival liberates Major Miller A.A.A.G. who has been studying with me the new duty and whose acquaintance with it will now make 19 him invaluable elsewhere. [[left margin]] Special Commissioner to investigate and punish outrages [[/left margin]] Much of my attention this week has been given to the statements of outrages which came up from different quarters, chiefly from the South-western portion of the State. These first came to me in the form of statements made at the Mobile Agency, and forwarded in a communication which gave neither names nor dates. This I returned with directions to make the statements precise and to have them sworn to. They came back full enough but so carelessly drawn as not to state how the party knew what he owned and neither signed or in any way attested. Meanwhile as there was no cavalry here and Department Headquarters were inaccessible, I renewed my request for the 2d Maine, and the day that Col Cadle arrived I ordered Maj Miller to visit every County in which I had heard of outrages and gave him for his guidance the statements forwarded from Mobil.e [[left margin]] Authority from the Governor [[/left margin]] At the same time I laid the matter before Governor Parson, who is as prompt and true[[?]] as it is possible to be. He gave Major Miller complete authority, as a Special Commissioner, to investigate the workings of the civil authority, to arrest marauding gangs and other parties against whom there may be strong presumption of crime and to turn them over to the civil or military authorities as circumstances should dictate. I hope for much from this mission, particularly in view of an order received from the Commandant of that District placing his forces at my command for the purposes of this Bureau. [[left margin]] Cavalry for same purpose to Pike Co. [[/left margin]] This morning also a company of Cavalry has been sent to Troy in Pike County to look after similar cases in the South Eastern part of the
