Viewing page 474 of 557

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Bureau Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands,
Office Assistant Commisioner,
For the State of Mississippi.
Vicksburg, Miss., April 8th, 1868.

Major General O.O. Howard
Commissioner,
General:

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a communication from your office, asking me to give in a few words, the exact process pursued by myself, or my subordinates to secure and defend the legal rights of refugees and freedmen when complaint is made of assault or outrage of any kind.

And in reply to state that, it is my orders that all cases of outrage or assault against refugees or freedmen or the deprivation of their civil rights, shall be at once reported to me by the nearest officer or agent of the bureau when I cause the case to be thoroughly investigated by a reliable officer and if I have reason to believe that justice will not be done by the civil courts a report of the case with the names of all witnesses are forwarded