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HEADQUARTER, ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER,
Bureau Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands,
South Carolina, Georgia and Florida,
Beaufort, S.C., August 7th 1865.

General,

I have the honor to report my return to my post.

I find many matters requiring my immediate attendance.  If my long absence has seemingly caused some delays, I hope the results will prove that it has not been disadvantageous to the work of the Bureau.

Notwithstanding the great importance in a work of this kind in starting right, and securing only good men to manage its interests, yet in view of the necessity of having agents in the field at once, I have thought it best to make a request, of which the accompanying is a copy, on the Department Commanders in this district, even at the risk of securing some incompetent men.

To organize the machinery of the Bureau and do its business as the truest interests of the nation demand that it should be done, will require