Registers of Letters Received
setName: label: See more items in
content: Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Georgia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1869
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAAHC.FB.M798, Series 3
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Another recordkeeping practice of the day, as indicated above, was that of entering incoming communications into registers of letters received. The entries in the registers include such information as the name or office of the correspondent, the date of the letter, the place from which it was written, an abstract of its contents, abstracts of the contents of the enclosures, the date of receipt of the letter, and the register entry number assigned to it.

The 5 volumes of registers of letters received, October 1865–May 1869, are arranged in two ways. The entries in Registers 1 – 3 are arranged alphabetically by initial letter of surname or office of correspondent and thereunder generally in chronological order by date of receipt of communication. In addition, in Registers 2 and 3 the letters were assigned entry numbers with a separate numerical sequence for each alphabetical division. The entries in Registers 4 and 5 are arranged in chronological order by date of receipt and numbered, with a separate numerical sequence for each register. A name index book to Register 5 has been filmed before the register.

Because the number of pages allotted to each alphabetical division in the registers often proved insufficient, it became necessary to continue the entries in other parts of the volume. The National Archives has filmed the registers in correct order, therefore some of the pages are not in the original numerical sequence. Blank numbered pages have not been filmed.

The registers contain several abbreviations. "E & M" refers to the series of endorsement books and "LRB" to the registers of letters received. In each case the numeral after the abbreviation in the register is the page number in the endorsement book or in the register of letters received. Not all letters entered in the registers are among the records of the Assistant Commissioner. Some letters were forwarded to the Bureau headquarters in Washington; others were referred to staff officers or sent to officers subordinate to the Assistant Commissioner. The National Archives has placed an asterisk (*) in the registers near the entry number of each letter that is still in the series of registered letters received.