Letters Sent
setName: label: See more items in
content: Selected Series of Records Issued by the Commissioner of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1872
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAAHC.FB.M742, Series 1
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: In this publication the index book is filmed before the related volume of letters sent. There are name and subject index books to volume 1 – 4 and name index books to volume 5 – 7. Volume 5 also has a subject index that is bound at the front of the volume. The name and subject indexes are arranged alphabetically, with the name listed first. In the index books to volume 1 and 2 the number after the name refers to the page in the letterbook, and the number after the subject refers to the file number of the letter. This practice is also true for volume 3, except that the number after the subject refers to either the file number or the page number. 

The 7 volumes of letters sent are dated 1865 to 1872 and contain copies of letters, telegrams, and circulars letters sent by Commissioner Howard and his Assistant Adjutant General. Also included are copies of Howard's annual reports to the President. The documents in the letterbooks are generally arranged in chronological order. In the first three volumes each letter, telegram, circular letter, or report was assigned a number. In many volumes there are fractions in the left margin of the pages. The numerator is the number of the page in the same volume on which a preceding letter to the same correspondent appears, and the denominator is the number of the page on which there is a subsequent letter. Frequently noted in the letterbooks is the file number of the letter received or the number of the order issued that relates to the subject of the letter. 

A series of press copies of letters sent is not included in this publication. Most of the press copies relate mainly to requests for transportation or applications for positions in the Bureau.

From October 1867 to June 1872 letters of appointment and revocation were kept as a separate series and are not included in this publication.