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Montgomery Ala. Jan 5th 1866
Brvt. Maj. Genl. W. Swayne
Asst. Commissioner State of Alabama

General

I have the honor to submit for your information, a report of my recent tour of inspection, in Lowndes County, in this State.

In the production of its soil and in the number of its colored population, this county ranks third in the State. In it are living many large planters who owned a large number of slaves. It was natural, that in a county so densely populated with blacks, to expect vast confusion when the time arrived for them to seek homes for themselves and families for the coming year. This bewilderment was augmented many fold from the fact that the county has been without an agent of the Bureau for the past year; no troops have been quartered within its borders; a large portion of the county is remote from the River and also from any rail road communication, and the information, which usually spreads along such thorough fares has had but slight influence in the county. Hence many of the colored people must, of necessity, be grossly ignorant of their true position and at a loss to know what is for their best interest. Many of the planters also in the more secluded portions of the county, have clung more closely to their