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16

I found in my travels through the Department, a goodly number of freedmen who have been employed in the wood yards and on the home farms who claimed that they had not been paid in full for their labor, and a number who insisted that they had received no compensation, and that rations issued to them were of poor quality &c. Upon investigation I found that at all the wood yards - on all the home farms, and in all the camps of freedmen there were, at the time I made the inspection, & had been from the very beginning, a class of colored people who were lazy & indolent & who refused to work under any consideration, and another class who were able to do but little work - perhaps work for an hour or two in the morning and the same length of time in the evening. Many of this latter class were cripples, others were weak & sickly, & not a few [[strikethrough]] were [[/strikethrough]] were rendered unfit for field labor on account of age, being too old or too young. This class of freedmen were totally dependent upon the Government for food, clothing & medical attendance, and in order to get some return were employed in the wood-yards and on the home farms in doing light and easy jobs - such as loading wood on the wagons and cording it up on the Levee, or to work as many hours in the field as the Superintendent in charge might think proper & just. These people last above referred to did not earn more than their support and it was quite proper that regular wages should not be given them. As a general rule this class of