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and schools and hospitals immediately established. In December 1863, Davis' Bend was seized and assigned to Col. Eaton for the use of the Freedmen and many thousands were removed there within a month after its seizure.

Today, in the Mississippi Valley the freedmen are in vastly better condition than the poor white people. They have five schools where the poor whites had one previous to the war; are more intelligent and there are more of them that can read and write & they have more energy and perseverance, and many of them have more ready money in the bank which they have realized by honest industry during the past two years, than a "down country cracker" in South Carolina or Georgia would earn in a life time. Nearly all of the freed people in the Valley are at work either for themselves on land which they have leased, or for Northern lessees, or their former masters at stipulated wages, or a certain portion of the crops when sold; and the number of white refugees depending upon the Government for support is largely in excess of the freedmen.

This condition of affairs has not been brought about in two years without constant labor, perseverance and earnestness of purpose. Inefficiency and wilful neglect could never have accomplished it. Col. John Eaton has had charge of the Freedmen in the Valley during all this time - from the beginning. It is his policy that has been pursued - his orders that have been carried out. Why not give him credit; I am well satisfied