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Head-Quarters, District of Alabama.
Montgomery, Ala., August 8th 1866

Maj. Gen. O. O. Howard
Commissioner &c.
Washington D.C.

General
I have the honor to submit a communication from S. S. Garner, Asst. Supt. at Selma.
The land referred to within was the property of the late Rebel Government and transferred to the Bureau by the Agents of the Treasury Dept. under the Executive order of Nov. 11th 1865. Upon the land being as transferred it was leased at nominal rates in small lots to respectable freedmen who, owing to the prejudice of the people were unable to lease land elsewhere. They were promised the privilege of purchasing their lots as soon as a regular title could be given them, it being supposed at the office that there was no doubt but that the Bureau had such