Reports on Operations and Conditions
setName: label: See more items in
content: Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Tennessee, 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.M999, Series 14
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The Assistant Commissioner retained copies of certain periodic reports he sent to General Howard at Bureau headquarters in Washington, D. C. These retained copies include narrative annual reports of conditions and operations, October 1866–October 1868, are narrative quarterly reports of conditions and operations, September–December 1866. Both series of reports, which are arranged chronologically, summarize activities for the period they cover, mention problems, and give the Assistant Commissioner's opinions concerning relationships between the freedmen and the white populace. Much statistical data is included concerning Bureau operations.

Another series of retained copies of reports of the Assistant Commissioner, the monthly reports of operations, April 1866–December 1868, is arranged chronologically and is similar to the annual and quarterly narrative reports. Included among the monthly reports are a number of consolidated monthly reports, similar in content and format to those submitted by the subordinate officials to the Assistant Commissioner and probably compiled from them.

The Assistant Commissioner received two series of reports from his field officers. Narrative reports of operations and conditions in the subdistricts, February 1866–April 1869, which are arranged chronologically, were sent periodically to the Assistant Commissioner in accordance with his circular order of January 21, 1866. These reports contains information relating to school matters, the administration of relief, agricultural and labor conditions, the operations of laws, and the relationships between the races. Statistical reports on the number and kinds of persons receiving rations and the value of the rations issued are interfiled with the narrative reports. Some of the reports are entered in the registers of letters received.

The Assistant Commissioner also received inspection reports, September 6, 1865–March 12, 1869, which are arranged chronologically, from his field officers. These reports were normally prepared in response to special orders asking for a report on operations and conditions in a designated area. The area could be a district, a camp, or an area not covered by a formal Bureau field office. These inspections reports usually contain information similar to that in other kinds of reports, but with additional statements as to the fitness of the officer in charge of the area or the condition of the facility inspected. Some inspection reports were requested by the Assistant Commissioner after receiving complaints from other field officers or from people living in a particular area.