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children of unmarried women with larger numbers of little children too young to work, many colored men had two, three or even four wives, and from this cause the number of young children is very large. Every where that I went I was met with the question, "What are you yankees going to do with the women and children. Planters say, that they cannot, even if they would, support so large a number of non-producers, next year as they now have on their plantations. It is almost imperative that the Bureau, or the Freedmen's Aid Commission, should at once make provision for several thousand of the class referred to in the Northern District of Mississippi. 
 
I trust you will not understand me as ignoring the policy of the Bureau, as set forth in Article of General Orders No 13 dated Vicksburg, Miss Oct 31, 1865. On the contrary I endorse the