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OFFICE SUPERINTENDENT R.F. & A. ,
Memphis, Tenn., Feby. 16 1866.

Lt Col J.E. Jacob
AA  Genl R F & A L.

I have the honor to herewith forward to you an order which I wish approved. 

The class of persons to whom it refers are Semi-vagrants, who when sickness & destitution overtake them become a burden to this Bureau, and as long as they can remain in a wretched hovel, without having to exert themselves to pay rents, they cannot be prevailed upon to seek employment & will not hire even when persons hunt them out and offer them good Quarters & wages. 

The simple thing of compelling them to leave the land upon which they have squatted & are still squatting, will also compel them to seek shelter elsewhere & they will have to go to the Country to do this. 

The small pox is commencing to spread rapidly among them, and in the wretched crowded condition in which they live, there is great danger of it spreading to an alarming extent.