Oliver Otis Howard, Autobiography of Oliver Otis Howard, major general , United States army : volume 2

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[268] a book of record, which had been carefully kept, and also by finding duplicate vouchers retained by subordinate disbursing officers in the States where the bounties were paid, I was able to account for the entire fund to the satisfaction of the court. This result, however, did not satisfy General Belknap, who caused the United States to sue me for the entire fund. That suit was brought against me after I had gone to Oregon and taken command of the Department of the Columbia. The case was continued in the United States District Court of Oregon, by formal postponement on the motion of the United States district attorney, for two years. At last the case was transferred (as a convenience to the Government) to the Court of the District of Columbia and there tried. The jury found for me without leaving their seats on every count. So that after great trouble and expense the retained bounty case was finally settled.

As will appear in the description of the subsequent operations of the Bureau, the division of financial affairs, besides administering the funds already noted, as the money was collected and spent, was the disbursing office for all the Congressional appropriations for the Bureau.

After the first year all the original sources of revenue for the Bureau except the retained bounty fund and direct Congressional appropriations were united and called the “Refugees' and freedmen's fund,” and expended for proper public purposes, mainly for labor and schools.

The many benevolent organizations of the country, which I have mentioned, after the commencement of Bureau work, gradually lessened their eleemosynary features and gave themselves vigorously to the teaching