_Assistant Adjutant-General_.
GENERAL ORDERS, No. 145.
WAR DEPARTMENT,
ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
_Washington, October 9, 1865_.
Whereas certain tracts of land, situated on the coast of South Carolina,
Georgia, and Florida, at the time for the most part vacant, were set
apart by Major-General W. T. Sherman's special field order No. 15 for
the benefit of refugees and freedmen that had been congregated by the
operations of war or had been left to take care of themselves by their
former owners; and
Whereas an expectation was thereby created that they would be able to
retain possession of said lands; and
Whereas a large number of the former owners are earnestly soliciting the
restoration of the same and promising to absorb the labor and care for
the freedmen:
_It is ordered_, That Major-General Howard, Commissioner of the
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, proceed to the
several above-named States and endeavor to effect an arrangement
mutually satisfactory to the freedmen and the landowners, and make
report. And in case a mutually satisfactory arrangement can be effected,
he is duly empowered and directed to issue such orders as may become
necessary, after a full and careful investigation of the interests of
the parties concerned.
By order of the President of the United States: