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22

There is no doubt but that there has been fraud perpetrated upon the Commissary Department in the Valley of the Miss. by Subordinate Officers and employees who have been in charge of freedmen camps and home farms. False returns upon which the issue of rations was based, have been made and much larger quantities of rations drawn than was just, and often but a small portion of the authorised ration actually reached the freedmen. That very many of these Officers and men have made considerable amounts of money by selling the Commissary Stores which were actually drawn for & should have been issued to the freedmen, is true.
This manner of fraudulent proceeding has occurred in different districts throughout the Valley during the early management of the freedmen, but the cases are extremely rare.
That there has been a system of fraud practised in the Valley, known to Col. Eaton and permitted or suffered by him by which it was understood that the Government was to be defrauded of Commissary Stores and the proceeds appropriated by him, or by any Officer, enlisted man or employee under him, is untrue. It is a wilful and malicious falsehood and there is not an item of proof to substantiate the charge.
The District of Natchez, Miss. is the particular point where most of the fraudulent acts are claimed to have been committed and where the freedmen are said to have been most cruelly treated and neglected, and where the most intense suffering has been forced upon them. In December 1814