First appeared as a series of magazine articles from May 1868 to Feb. 1869. Later rev. by the author and gathered with other materials into a single ms., now in the Yale University Library, under title: The bureau major.

Includes bibliographical references.

This book records the observations made by John William De Forest as an agent of the Freedmen's Bureau at Greenville, SC, in 1866 and 1867. Scorning a politic reticence, he stated his individualistic conclusions with a vigor that probably offended both Northern and Southern readers in the 'sixties, and may retain this double effectiveness even today. De Forest's service at Greenville extended over a period of fifteen months. Since the three counties in his district were the westernmost in the state, he did not witness Reconstruction where the Negro population was thickest. And since he left at the end of 1867, he did not witness carpetbag and Negro government. But though he missed these melodramatic phases, it was his lot to watch a characteristic region of the southern Piedmont under the impact of emancipation, defeat in war, military rule, and social and economic disorganization. It was his lot also to serve the United States in one of its earliest attempts at military occupation, and in its very first experiment with a vast administrative agency for social reform. - Introduction.

De Forest was an agent of the Freedman's Bureau in Greenville in 1866 and 1867.

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