Viewing page 275 of 282

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

schools and public assemblies in many directions and must further make himself acquainted with the wants of freedmen at their homes. The officers to whom Gen'l Armstrong referred and who had been officers in the former conduction of affairs, were not adapted to and did not perform these duties, and consequently were as he said "doing nothing," but he did not mean, nor is it a fact, that there is nothing to do. 

On the contrary, I recommend that if the continuance of the Bureau allows of time to carry out a sustained plan, an officer of greater moral power and energy than Mr. Reed be placed on duty on the Eastern Shore and that the Division compassing James City and York Counties, now meant by the resignation of [(?)] be given to the charge of an officer of like character. 

The second of the communications above referred to recommend that the last named counties be left to the charge of the Sub Asst. in addition to his other.