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B.R.F. & A.Lds
Office of Supt Sub. Dist
Nelson & Amherst Counties
Lovingston Dec. 31st 1866

Bvt. Brig. Genl. O. Brown
A.A.A.G. Department of the Potomac

General:
I have the honor to submit the following report, of "Bureau affairs" in accordance with instructions contained in Circular No. 6. C.S. The Freedmen have had much less litigation & difficulty in dividing crop & settling up for the year than was anticipated. Many have worked hard & find themselves worse off than they were this time last year. This is attributable in a measure to lack of judgement on their part, which induced them to locate on poor land without any means of cultivating the soil, other than a hoe, & that- borrowed. Notwithstanding the almost universal complaint on the part of citizens that the Negros have done nothing, (a conclusion they arrive at because the corn which would have filled their garners, under the old regime, is divided out among a dozen families perhaps & does not make the show it would in the planters crib) their condition proves these assertions are groundless.

The women are not working generally; they all want to set up housekeeping & have nothing to "go upon".

The Sheriff of Nelson informs me that the Freedmen are paying their taxes more promptly than new freeholding Whites.                                                                                              

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