United States, Freedmen's Branch Records, 1872-1878

What is in This Collection?

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (often called the Freedmen’s Bureau) was created in 1865 at the end of the American Civil War to supervise relief efforts including education, health care, food and clothing, refugee camps, legalization of marriages, employment, labor contracts, and securing back pay, bounty payments and pensions. These records include letters and endorsements sent and received, account books, applications for rations, applications for relief, court records, labor contracts, registers of bounty claimants, registers of complaints, registers of contracts, registers of disbursements, registers of freedmen issued rations, registers of patients, reports, rosters of officers and employees, special and general orders and circulars received, special orders and circulars issued, records relating to claims, court trials, property restoration, and homesteads.

The Branch was established in June 1872 in the Adjutant General's Office to continue any Bureau that was left unfinished.

Records of the Freedmen’s Branch in the Office of the Adjutant General are part of RG 105 Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands from NARA microfilm publication M2029. National Archives Pamphlet M2029 Branch field office locations

Claim Records in this Collection Include:

• Registers of Claimants: Charleston, SC, Roll 1; Fort Johnston, NC, Roll 2; Louisville, KY, Roll 8; Fort Macon, NC, Roll 18; Fort Leavenworth, KS, Roll 18; Fort Monroe, VA, Roll 22; Memphis, TN, Roll 27; Nashville, TN, Roll 32; Natchez, MS, Roll 37; New Orleans, LA, Roll 47; St. Louis, MO, Roll 50; Savannah, GA, Roll 52; Vicksburg, MS, Roll 56
• Lists of Claimants: Charleston, SC, Roll 1; Louisville, KY, Roll 9; Fort Macon, NC, Roll 18; Fort Leavenworth, KS, Roll 18; Memphis, TN, Roll 27; Nashville, TN, Roll 32; Natchez, MS, Roll 37; St. Louis, MO, Roll 51; Savannah, GA, Roll 52; Vicksburg, MS, Roll 56
• Confidential Lists: Charleston, SC, Roll 1; New Orleans, LA, Roll 47
• Memorandums of Examination of Claimants: Louisville, KY, Roll 9; Natchez, MS, Roll 38; New Orleans, LA, Roll 47; Vicksburg, MS, Roll 56
• Confidential Lists for the Identification of Claimants: Louisville, KY, Roll 17; Fort Macon, NC, Roll 18; Fort Leavenworth, KS, Roll 19; Memphis, TN, Roll 28; Nashville, TN, Roll 33; Natchez, MS, Roll 40; St. Louis, MO, Roll 51; Savannah, GA, Roll 53 ;Vicksburg, MS, Roll 57
• Receipts for Payments of Claims: Memphis, TN, Roll 28;St. Louis, MO, Roll 51
• Lists of Claimants Paid…: Nashville, TN, Roll 33
• Registers of Claims Investigated: Natchez, MS, Roll 37
• Names and Addresses of Claimants: Natchez, MS, Roll 37; New Orleans, LA, Roll 47; Vicksburg, MS, Roll 56
• Register of Payments Made to Claimants: St. Louis, MO, Roll 50
• Confidential Lists Concerning Deceased Soldiers: St. Louis, MO, Roll 51
• Affidavits of Identify: Vicksburg, MS, Roll 58

National Museum of African American History & Culture

The museum is working with the Smithsonian Transcription Center and volunteers to transcribe the records of the Bureau.

• Freedmen's Bureau Transcription Project.
• About The Freedmen's Bureau Database Records
• FREEDMEN'S BUREAU ABBREVIATIONS, STAFF ROSTERS, AND STYLE SHEETS
• Freedmen's Bureau - Browse Projects

Additional records and/or images may be added to this collection in the future.

To Browse This Collection

What Can These Records Tell Me?

The following information may be found in these records:

Collection Content

Sample Images

• 

  1866 Memorandum

• 

  1864 Record of Claimant

• 

  1873 Sample Letter

Record Types

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (often called the Freedmen’s Bureau) created many different record types necessary to supervise relief efforts including education, health care, food and clothing, refugee camps, legalization of marriages, employment, labor contracts, and securing back pay, bounty payments and pensions. These records include letters and endorsements sent and received, account books, applications for rations, applications for relief, court records, labor contracts, registers of bounty claimants, registers of complaints, registers of contracts, registers of disbursements, registers of freedmen issued rations, registers of patients, reports, rosters of officers and employees, special and general orders and circulars received, special orders and circulars issued, records relating to claims, court trials, property restoration, and homesteads.

• The following link will provide a description of the record types found in this and other Freedmen’s Bureau collections.Freedmen's Bureau Record Types

Officer's Manual

The War Department published an Officer's Manual to assist bureau personnel in the records that were required to be keep in bureau offices.

• United States, National Archives, Freedmen's Bureau, Officer's Manual

The following Wiki articles are transcriptions of portions of the manual

• US, NARA, Freedmen's Bureau, Officer's Manual - I, Book Keeping and Official Correspondence
• US, NARA, Freedmen's Bureau, Officer's Manual - IV, Medical Department
• US, NARA, Freedmen's Bureau, Officer's Manual - V, Subsistence
• US, NARA, Freedmen's Bureau, Officer's Manual - VI, Miscellaneous Provisions - Includes Reports from Assistant Commissioners

Inventory

An inventory for this collection which includes the National Archives Identifier Number (NAID) and preliminary inventory entry number is available at United States, Freedmen’s Branch Records, Inventory.