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Office Bureau Refugees F. and A.L.
Huntsville Ala. Sept. 7th 1866.

Maj. General Swayne 
Montgomery Ala. 

General, 
I have the honor to comply with your request by writing to you relative to matters in my Dist.
The suspension of the issue of rations is me with general surprise and disapproval by both white and black people of the District.  The approach of cold weather; the general failure of the crops; the absence of any adequate demand for labor, and the want of means to pay for it; the frustration and impoverishment of the country, and the consequent inability of the civil authorities to meet the demands for relief, all go to show that thousands must suffer for food and clothing, unless some outside aid is rendered. 
I am in receipt of numerous petitions, signed by whites and blacks asking for the continuance of the issues of rations, as the most affectual mode of securing relief, But of course I can do nothing beyond my orders in the premises.
I am organizing Freedmen's schools throughout the Dist. in obedience to your instructions, and find that I must have some money to buy lumber and materials for repairing school rooms &c, before I can make the thing a proper success.