The quartermaster's department has filled some requisitions for clothing and
supplies for these people, but the demands upon its stores have not been large.
At Key West the negro laborers have been of g/eat value in the work of the
department, and indeed at all points of the coast they have been a much needed
aid to its operations.
From New Orleans the chief quartermaster of the department of the Gulf
reported that negroes were flocking into the lines in such numbers as to threaten
serious embarrassment. He estimated that by Christmas there would be nearly,
if not quite, fifty thousand refugees within the lines. As the whites themselves
of New Orleans, owing to the strict blockade of the rebels at Yicksburgv and
the absence of the able-bodied men in the ranks of the rebellion, were in a state
of destitution, which compelled the general commanding to feed many thousand
at the expense of the government, this threatened a grave difficulty.
Ue was advised that the only resource appeared to be the conquest of a
greater territory upon which these refugees could be located and permitted to
cultivate their own food.
There was at that time but little land suited for such a purpose within aeeoie
possession of the army. The expedition organized by General Butler and sent
out under command of General W eitzel, which has recovered possession of some
of the finest lands in Louisiana, extending for eighty miles along the railroad
to Berwick's bay, has, however, opened a country of sufficient extent to afford
the means of living to all such persons who may not find profitable employ-
ment in the service of the United States.
