Registers of Letter Received
setName: label: See more items in
content: Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the District of Columbia, 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.M1055, Series 3
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Another 19th–century recordkeeping practice was the entering of incoming communications into registers of letters received. The entries in the registers include such information as the name of office of the correspondent, the date of the letters, the place of origin, the date of receipt, an abstract of the contents, and the entry number assigned at time of receipt.

The five volumes of registers of letters received, September 1865–August 1869, are arranged chronologically. The entries in registers 1 – 3, September 1865–January 1868, are arranged and numbered in chronological order by date of receipt, with a separate numerical sequence for each volume. The entries in Registers 4 and 5, January 1868–August 1869, are arranged alphabetically by initial letter of surname or office of correspondent and thereunder numbered in chronological order by date of receipt, with a separate numerical sequence for each alphabetical division often proved insufficient, it became necessary to continue the entries in the other parts of the volume. The NARS staff filmed the registers in correct entry order; as a result, some of the pages are not in the original numbered sequence.

The registers contain many cross–references, mostly to related entries in this or in other series of records of the Assistant Commissioner's Office. The symbol "LR" refers to the series of registers of letters received and "EB" to the endorsement books. In each case, the number following the symbol refers to the page number in the register of letters received or in the endorsement book where a related entry is found. The notation "Folio CPB" (or "CP") followed by an alphabetical designation, such as "D," refers to the series of copy press books of letters sent, Volume 4. The symbol "DB" refers to a disbursement book among the records of the Assistant Quartermaster and Disbursing Officer for the District. The disbursement book has not been reproduced in this microfilm publication.

A number of documents entered in the registers are no longer among the registered letters received, because communications often were forwarded to Bureau headquarters, referred to staff or subordinate officers, or returned to the sender with endorsements. The NARS staff placed an asterisk near the writer's name in the registers to indicate that the corresponding letter is still among the registered letters received. Two asterisks beside an entry indicate that the document is in one of several series of unbound reports reproduced in this publication. Some entries are marked "File With" or "Filed As," indicating that such letters are no longer filed under their original designation. Many of these letters, however, have not been placed with the related correspondence as indicated in the register. Letters received by endorsement were not entered in the registered of letters received as routine incoming communications. These letters are filed among the unregistered letters received.