Small Collection of Documents Relating To The Freedmen’s Bureau – SOLD

Description

Following the Civil War, the Freedmen’s Bureau (Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands), provide valuable assistance to thousands of former slaves and impoverished whites in the South and District of Columbia.

The bureau was established by the War Department in 1865, to undertake the overwhelming task of provided all the necessary needs for well over 4 million people, needing; food, clothing, operation hospitals, shelter, legalize marriages, provide employment, distill racial unrest, and work with ex Black Union soldiers and sailors to get bounty monies, pensions and back pay due them.

Most of the documents in this small collection of 6 pieces relate to Lieutenant Douglas Gilbert Risley, then an officer in the 42nd U.S. Infantry, created after 1866 in the army’s restructuring. He was first a captain in the 9th Indiana Infantry, mustering out in May of 1863.  He transferred to the 9th US Colored Troops on Nov. 27, 1863, mustering out in May, 1865.  And again, transferred to the 42nd U.S. Infantry as a 2nd Lieutenant; retiring with the rank of captain.  He died in 1882.  Risley had been wounded several times during the war.

Risley was extremely well thought of for his actions and kindness in performance of his duties while serving the the Bureau. A memorial was erected to him, and a school was named for him in Glynn Country, Georgia out of appreciation for his service.  The memorial reads,

” Colored Memorial School and Risley High School/ Brunswick’s frist public school for African Americans opened in 1870 as the Freedmen’s School, later changed to Risley School t honor Captain Douglas Gilbert Risley, who raised funds for the school’s construction…....”            I have included research material about the bureau and Risley for you; there is much more info on the subject.

Documents for Risley include; a pay voucher dated Sept., 1867 for himself and a black servant, with attached letterhead for R,B & AL, concerning his pay accounts; another voucher dated Dec., 1867 with another attached letterhead, and a printed Southern Express Company bill of lading from Paymaster J.W. Nichols, sending his $126.72; and finally, a loose letterhead written to Major Nichols for pay in Feb., 1868.

The collection also contains a document for Captain and Bvt. Major J.F. Denniston, Commissary of Subsistence, U.S. Vols.; his pay voucher for himself and a mulatto servant.  He served in the Dept. of Florida, Refugees, Freedman’s, and Abandoned Lands.  The document is dated Sept. 1866.

On a letterhead for the Bureau of R,F, and AL, dated Jan. 1868, Bvt Captain J. Murray Hoag.  He had seen service with the 4th USCT, and at the time of the document was serving with the 44th U.S. Infantry, in Savannah, Ga.  The content relates to his pay accounts.

Would it not be great of have some weighty correspondence about the bureau, but the letterheads, and subject matter are significant in their own right.  Condition overall is fine +.  Scarce material in any form.

USPS  Priority,  $8.00