Preliminary Inventory of Records of the Field Offices of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (Record Group 105) - Texas
Prepared by Marvin Holmes, Genealogist

Registers of letters received

Entries are arranged by initial letter of surname of correspondent and there under generally chronologically. Name index. For Huntsville, Texas, Walker County, entries are arranged and numbered in chronological order. Volume 110 includes a name index, and there is a partial name index in volume 111. Volume 110 also contains letters sent and circulars issued, October 1866-January 1867, arranged and numbered in chronological order, and monthly narrative reports of conditions and operations, August-December 1867. Volume 11 also contains a register of contracts and narrative reports of conditions and operations, January-May 1868. For Liberty, Texas Polk County, entries arranged chronologically. This volume also contains a list of permits to ship cotton, November 1866:

Reports

The received and retained reports relating to rations, land and Bureau personnel, Oct. 1865-Apr. 1869, are arranged chronologically by month and thereunder by type of report. The received reports came from sub-assistant commissioners in the field offices and consist primarily of monthly reports of rations, clothing, and medicines issued to freedmen and refugees, and monthly reports of abandoned and confiscated lands:

Records of Criminal Offenses

Are numbered consecutively. The entries in the first volume for the period 1865-68 are not in chronological sequence up to page 43; however, beginning with page 43, and continuing throughout volumes 2 and 3, the entries that span Feb. 1 867-Dec, 1868 are arranged chronologically according to the date a particular offense was reported. The record" may have been at least partially compiled from the registered reports.

Registered Reports of Murders and Outrages

Are arranged by time period and thereunder in the order they were entered in volume 1 of the registers of letters received. The first group of reports is narrative and the second and third are tabular; the third was submitted on prepared Bureau forms. Preceding the first group is a report of freedmen murdered in the State of Texas since the close of the rebellion, evidently compiled in the Assistant Commissioner’s office from the registered reports received. Information about criminal offenses is also available in the reports of operation and conditions.

Miscellaneous Records Relating to Murders and Other Criminal Offenses

The miscellaneous records relating to murders and other criminal offenses, 1865-1868, include unregistered reports relating to murders and outrages, 1865-66; list of criminal offenses reported and not reported by the sub-assistant commissioners, March 1868. An inspection of the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville, Texas Walker County, the appendix of lists 209 freedmen confined, including their names, counties of residence, crimes allegedly committed, sentences, and miscellaneous remarks.