Viewing page 180 of 243

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Bureau Refugees, Freedmen & Abandoned Lands,
Headquarters 5th District of Virginia,
Alexandria, Va., August 31st 1865.

Col. O. Brown,
Asst. Com'r Richmond, Va.,

Colonel:-
I am obliged to state that I am totally unable to make the reports of Lands, Refugees and Freedmen, as called for in your letter of Aug 29th accompanying blank forms. Up to the present time but one officer has reported for duty in this District.

A few days ago I despatched two enlisted men, accompanied  by a squad of cavalry, to Loudoun Co., for the purpose of taking a census of the colored population. The commander of the squad went for the purpose of taking boundaries of some lands. Their presence excited the curiosity of the people, and the census-takers wrote to me that they would return with the cavalry, deeming