Viewing page 154 of 236

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

0860

148

Bureau Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands,
Headquatrers 10th Sub-District of Virginia.
Alexandria, Va., March 3rd 1868.

Bvt. Brig. Gen. O. Brown
Bureau R. F. and A. Lands
Richmond, Virginia

General:
In compliance with Circular No. 6 Head-Quarters Asst. Head-Quarters Asst. Comr. District of Virginia January 29th 1866, I have the honor to submit the following report on the condition of Bureau affairs in Alexandria Co. Va. for the month of February 1868.

Labor for able bodied males is plenty, the work increasing as the season advances, but this city is overstocked with women, who have large families of children, whom nobody will employ, and who with some old people form a class that must be supported in a great degree by charity, there is also a class of shiftless, worthless women who will not go to the country with their husbands, where they can be provided with good homes, but remaining in idleness in town, spend the earnings of their husbands in a needless manner, and thus prevent them from laying up anything against want. I know of no way of ridding the community of this class except by a vigilant exercise of the vagrant law, by which means many

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-03-22 13:23:21 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-03-23 08:33:04 added NARA# Removed bracketed notation for underscored words, as per TC instructions do not indicate underlining, font, bold, etc. Preserved misspelling in pre-printed "Headquatrers" at top of page