 TENNESSEE OUTRAGES:Reports to the Freedmen’s Bureau(1866)In Tennessee, the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands began on 1 July 1865, with Brig. Gen. Clinton B. Fisk as Assistant Commissioner at Nashville. Fisk was succeeded by Brig. Gen. John R. Lewis (September - December, 1866), Maj. Gen. William P. Carlin (January, 1867 - October, 1868), and Lt. Col. James Thompson (October, 1868 - May, 1869). During General Fisk’s term, until June 1866, the Assistant Commissioner of Tennessee also had jurisdiction over Kentucky and northern Alabama. Fisk divided the Tennessee Bureau into three sub districts, with headquarters in Nashville, Memphis, and Chattanooga. Pulaski and Knoxville were later added as headquarters for two more sub districts. Then, subdistricts were subdivided into agencies with boundaries usually following county lines. From National Archives (Washington, DC) microfilm no. M999-34, Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Tennessee, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1869, are abstracted agency reports to the Assistant Commissioner of “outrages” committed by whites against blacks. An “outrage” meant any offense, but it was almost always a violent crime. Two installments of abstracts from this source appeared in American Genealogy Magazine, Vol. 13, No. 4 and American Genealogy Magazine, Vol. 14, Nos. 1 & 2. A third installment appears in the links below: |
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