Registers of Letters and Telegrams Received
setName: label: See more items in
content: Records of the Assistant Commissioner for State of Virginia, 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.M1048, Series 3
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Registers of letters and telegrams received are also typical of 19th–century recordkeeping practices. In addition to a summary of the contents of an incoming letter, the registers usually include such identifying information as the name and sometimes the office of the writer, the date of receipt, the date of communication, the place from which it was written, and the entry number assigned to it.

The records of the Assistant Commissioner include 10 volumes of registers of letters and telegrams received and a single volume register of communications received and referred. Entries in the 10 volumes of registers of letters and telegrams received, December 1, 1865–May 5, 1869, are arranged by time period, thereunder alphabetically by surname or office of correspondent, and thereunder chronologically by date of receipt. Correspondence from General Howard is usually entered under "W" for the War Department, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. All registers, except for volume 9, have name indexes prepared by Bureau employees. The name index for volume 9 was prepared by the NARS staff. The number appearing after the name refer to the number of the letters rather than to the number of the pages.

Since the number of pages allotted to each alphabetical division in a column sometimes proved insufficient, it became necessary to continue the entries elsewhere in the volume. The NARS staff filmed the registers in correct order, consequently, the pages are not in the original numerical sequence. A number of documents entered in the registers are no longer among the series of registered letters and telegrams received. Often communications were forwarded to Bureau headquarters, referred to staff or other subordinate officers, or returned with endorsements to the sender. The NARS staff has annotated the registers with a single asterisk to show which letters remain on file among the registered letters and telegrams received. Entries marked with a double asterisk are on file in the series of reports reproduced in this microfilm publication.

Entries in the one volume of communications received and referred by the Assistant Commissioner, June 5, 1867–November 16, 1868, are arranged chronologically according to date received. Each entry contains the correspondent's name, the date of the communication, a brief synopsis of contents, and the date it was forwarded. The entries in this register duplicate in part entries found in the volumes of the main series of registers of letters received for the same time period. There are numerous cross–references in the margins to other correspondence series, and the symbols used are similar to those described on page 3.