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War Department,
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands.
Washington, November 24th 1865.

Brvt. Brig. Genl. E.M. Gregory
Assistant Commissioner &c.
Galveston, Texas.

Genl.

Genl. Howard directs me to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 31st Octr, just received at the Bureau, and to express his satisfaction at the encouraging report of the operation of the Bureau in Texas contained therein.

He instructs me to impress upon you the necessity of securing the co-operation of the civil authorities of the State, in administering the affairs of the Bureau, and suggests, that, to enlist the citizens of the Country in the cause of the Freedmen, it would be well to organize, in such counties as you may consider prepared for the experiment, a mixed commission of three persons to be constituted as follows:  One to be selected by the Planters, one by the Freedmen, and the third the representative of the Bureau.  The

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