[1162] Freedmen’s Bureau Reports, Dec., 1865, and Nov., 1866; Ho. Ex. Doc., No. 142 41st Cong., 2d Sess.; Miller, “History of Alabama,” p. 240. Congress appropriated $20,000,000, and there was an immense amount of Confederate property confiscated and sold for the benefit of the Bureau. Of this no account was kept. One detailed estimate of Bureau expenses is as follows:—
| Appropriations by Congress | $20,000,000 | |
| General Bounty Fund | 8,000,000 | |
| Freedmen and Refugee Fund | 7,000,000 | |
| Retained Bounty Fund (Butler) | 2,000,000 | |
| School Fund (Confiscated Property) | 2,500,000 | |
| Total | $39,500,000 |
Edwin De Leon, “Ruin and Reconstruction of the Southern States,” in Southern Magazine, 1874. See also Ho. Ex. Doc., No. 142, 41st Cong., 2d Sess.
[1163] G. O. No. 4, July 28, 1865.
[1164] N. Y. News, Sept. 7, 1865 (Montgomery correspondent); Ku Klux Rept., p. 441; oral accounts.
[1165] Montgomery Mail, May 12, 1865.
[1166] Howard’s Circular, May 30, 1865; War Department Circular No. 11, July 12, 1865.
[1167] Huntsville Advocate, July 26, 1865. This was when the army officials were conducting the Bureau. Later the civilian agents charged $2 for making every contract, and the negroes soon wanted the Bureau abolished so far as it related to contracts. N. Y. Times, March 12, 1866 (letter from Florence, Ala.). In Madison County some of the negroes tarred and feathered a Bureau agent who had been collecting $1.50 each for drawing contracts. N. Y. Herald, Dec. 22, 1867.
[1168] Swayne’s Report, Jan. 31, 1866.
[1169] These regulations bear the approval of the other two rulers of Alabama—General Woods and Governor Parsons. See G. O. No. 12, Aug. 30, 1865.