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Table of Contents:
Chapter
47
: freedmen's aid societies and an act of congress creating a Bureau of refugees, freedmen and abandoned lands
Chapter
55
:
first
appropriation by congress for the bureau; the reconstruction Act,
March
2
,
1867
; increase of educational work
Chapter
60
: opposition to Bureau and reconstruction work became personal; the
Congregational Church of
Washington
Chapter
62
: life in
Washington, D. C.
,
1866
to
1874
; assigned to duty in regular army as commander,
Department of the Columbia
Chapter
63
: in the
Northwest
, among the
Indians
; trip to
Alaska
; life in
Portland, Ore.
;
1874
to
1881
Chapter
64
: superintendent of the
United States military Academy
; commanding
Department of the Platte
,
Omaha, Neb.
Chapter
68
:
French
army maneuvers,
1884
; promotion to
Major General
,
United States army
,
San Francisco
1886
-
88
[284] advocates of their wards to suit the situation. As I was obliged to execute the law under the direction of his Excellency, little by little his power made itself felt. To give my work the utmost opportunity to succeed I came to the conclusion, first, that all Government agencies within a given State must work in harmony, and so I recommended to the President that the functions of the military commander and of the assistant commissioner in each State be exercised by the same officer. To this he gladly assented. It was early done in Virginia. General Alfred H. Terry, the new department commander, became also the assistant commissioner for that State. He took his predecessor in the Bureau, Colonel Brown, on his staff and so operated all Bureau work through him, and soon that arrangement prevailed throughout other departments. Next, I worked to make each military subdivision coincident with the Bureau subdistrict. Terry's department, the State of Virginia, was divided into eight subdistricts with an officer in charge of each. Then I carefully instructed subordinates that, touching all subjects of a military character, the agents were to be under the direction of State department commanders. The Bureau officer acted in the same manner as an officer of engineers building a fort might do, reporting on all matters of construction directly to the chief of engineers at Washington, but at the same time being the engineer officer on the staff of a local commander. Fortunately for me the Secretary of War, Mr. Stanton, and General Grant, the commander of all the geographical departments and garrisons, were friendly to my work; it was, therefore, not difficult to secure in that way unity of organization and action;
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