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will recommend it only in cases where the Government and the freedmen will be benefited.

No rations are issued, except to those in hospital, numbering, when I was there, one hundred and fifty three (153) persons.

It is impossible to say how so large a number of persons have subsisted through the winter: without government aid, but I heard of no cases of extreme suffering there. I am of the opinion that the suspension of the issue of rations has resulted beneficially under the discreet action of General Armstrong. The people have been taught to rely upon themselves, and it has induced many to seek employment elsewhere. The season has now so far advanced that there need be no apprehension of suffering for want of food.

The superintendent has instituted a system of police in the colonies and camps which has had the effect to stop thieving, which prevailed to a considerable extent in the village of Hampton, and also to secure cleanliness and general good order.

Accompanied by General Armstrong I went to Yorktown on the 15th inst. There had been considerable difficulty at the places, on account of the freedmen settled on the Cook farm, known there as "Newtown". Upon this farm there were about six hundred (600) people nearby all able bodied, and capable of self support. This property was restored

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