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10

compel them by making the col'd man's case so plain, and through fear they give judgement in his favor.

On yesterday for instance I had a small boy, an orphan to apprentice to a union white man, and a rebel wanted him. I was put to considerable trouble on account of the Civil Court refusing to approve of it, finally I managed so as to force the court to bind the boy themselves to the union man.

There is about sixty union men in my Dist. and the majority of them are afraid to make it known.

The colored are in a perfect state of destitution. The lands that their houses sit on are owned by rebels, and they the rebels are confiscating the houses.

B. D. Hunter, Supt Putnam Co. thus reports
"You write to me that you have rec'd no report. I thought that the Freedmen's Bureau had ceased to exist under the late laws. The people here totally disregard its regulations. Neither white nor colored call on the agent any more and I see no law to compel them. I am doing nothing because I have nothing to do"