Viewing page 41 of 243

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Office Supt. Refugees &c. 9th Dist.,
Fort Monroe, Va., January 18, 1866.

Col. O. Brown.
Asst. Comr Freedmen's Bureau, State of Va., 
Richmond, Va.

Colonel.
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of inquiry to a postscript in a communication to you on the 11th inst. as follows, "We have been through a terrible scene of distress and suffering, the past three or four days."

You are aware that large numbers of men have been discharged by the Gov't, during the past four months, (one Dept., alone, having discharged over three hundred men), while the removal of the soldiers, and the closing of the Hospital has cut off nearly every source of labor and income to both men and women, not already engaged in farming.

In many instances the men have gone away seeking for homes and employment, leaving their families, for the present, helpless and dependent, to struggle on as best they could. We have

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-09-17 12:34:51