Bounties to Black Soldiers

This volume records the proceedings of a commission appointed by Special Orders No. 189 of the War Department Bureau Refugees Freedmen and Abandoned Lands. This commission was by the terms of the order assembled for the purpose of a careful hearing of complaints of claimants for government bounty made against officers or agents of this bureau or other persons concerned in the payment of bounties to colored soldiers sailors and marines. And the commission proceeded accordingly...thoroughly to investigate the subject of the payment of bounties in order to ascertain if possible not only whether the charges preferred but also whether any charges whatever could be substantiated. The commission conceived it to be their duty fully to investigate and make clear the nature and extent of the frauds committed upon claimants as well as the causes which had given rise to rumors of fraud which the commission might discover to be without foundation. These proceedings occurred over a span of fifty-one days in both Tennessee and Alabama.