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Chief Quartermasters Office
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands
Montgomery Ala. Oct. 10, 1865

Brig Genl Wager Swayne
Asst. Commissioner &c
Montgomery Ala

General

I have the honor to state I deem it of the utmost important that wherever there is to be a Rendezvous for the sick, lame, halt & blind & non-supporting Freedmen, that immediate steps be taken to secure shelter for them during the winter. Taking as a basis that there will be of this class, who will have to be fed & entirely supported by the government, (400) four hundred in each County of this State, (being 57 Counties) all have a total of (22,800) twenty two thousand eight hundred. Allowing to each family of eight (8) persons, the largest number that health will permit to congregate in one house, we will have to erect or secure places already evicted (2,800) twenty eight hundred Cabins 12 x 16, or buildings containing an equal amount of room. The plantations upon which these Rendezvous or Colonies are to be located should be secured to the use of the Bureau for the coming year, or until the Legislature of the State shall make such laws as shall relieve the Government of the care & support of this class of Freedmen. The reason for this is obvious. The farming or crop-making season begins here the first of January - plowing sometimes commencing much earlier. Unless the

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