1865 letter concerning the Freedmen Bureau (Civil War), North Carolina

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Administrative letter sent from soldier in the Edenton N.C. headquarters of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands to officer in the Roanoke Island HQ.  Purpose was immediate and temporary shelter and supply of destitute and suffering refugees and freedmen and their wives and children.
 
Bureau of Refuges, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, Edenton N.C. Nov 26th 1865
Sir,
I have the honor to report that --- Special Orders No. 210 dated Raleigh October 12th 1865 by Authority of Brid. Maj. Gen. T. H.  Ruger I am detailed for duty in the Bureau of Refuges Freedmen & Abandoned Lands and assigned to the sub district comprising the counties of Chowan Washington & Tyrrel with HQrs at Edenton N.C.
 
Respectfully your Obedient Servant Amos G. Tennant
2nd Lieut C. “I” 28th Mich Inft. Vol.
 
H.A. Oakman
Lieut Col. Comdg Post Roanoke Island

 

Roanoke Island was site of the Freedman's Colony.

Small hole in document, Two horizontal folds.

9 ¾" x 7 ¾"

 

Amos G. Tennant

Residence Comstock MI; 33 years old.
Enlisted on 9/1/1864 at Kalamazoo, MI as a Private.
On 9/2/1864 he mustered into "I" Co. MI 28th Infantry
He was Mustered Out on 6/5/1866 at Raleigh, NC
* 2nd Lieut 5/8/1865
* 1st Lieut 9/12/1865
 

The Freedmen’s Bureau, formally known as the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, was established  by an act of Congress on March 3, 1865, two months before Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Union’s Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War.

Its goal was to help millions of former black slaves and poor whites in the South in the aftermath of the Civil War. The Freedmen’s Bureau provided food, housing and medical aid, established schools and offered legal assistance. It also attempted to settle former slaves on land confiscated or abandoned during the war. However, the bureau was prevented from fully carrying out its programs due to a shortage of funds and personnel, along with the politics of race and Reconstruction.

Intended as a temporary agency to last the duration of the war and one year afterward, the bureau was placed under the authority of the War Department and the majority of its original employees were Civil War soldiers.

Thomas Howard Ruger (1833 – 1907) was an American soldier and lawyer who served as a Union general in the American Civil War. Ruger organized a division at Nashville and led his command to North Carolina in June 1865, and then had charge of the department of that state until June 1866. 

 

 

Hiram Abiff Oakman

Enlisted on 6/15/1861 at Marshfield, MA as a 1st Lieutenant.
On 6/15/1861 he was commissioned into "E" Co. MA 7th Infantry
He was discharged on 6/24/1863
On 2/18/1864 he was commissioned into Field & Staff US CT 30th Infantry
He was Mustered Out on 12/10/1865
* Capt 12/1/1861
* Lt Colonel 2/18/1864 (As of 30th USCT Infantry)
* Colonel 3/13/1865 by Brevet