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HEAD QUARTERS,
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands,
STATE OF LOUISIANA.

New Orleans, October 13th 1865

Major General O. O. Howard,
Commissioner etc. etc.
War Department
Washington D.C.

General:

I beg leave most respectfully to inform you that I am in receipt of most encouraging reports from my assistants, located in the various portions of the State, showing that the freedmen are supporting themselves without assistance from the Government. 

My assistant at Monroe, who has control of a large section of country, numbering six parishes, reports that during the months of August & September he had no occasion to issue any rations to freedmen and that he does not anticipate any necessity for such issues during the remainder of the year.

He also represented that the freedmen are gradually appreciating their true position, and that the planters are preparing for large crops next year