Order No. 9On February 6, 1862 General T. W. Sherman writes General Order No. 9 calling on Northern societies to assist in helping freedmen and outlines the general plan of superintendents for plantation labor and teachers for teaching freedmen.

The National Freedman's Relief AssociationOn February 20 the National Freedman's Relief Association. New York, originated at a meeting held in the hall of the Cooper Institute, in response to an appeal from Gen. Sherman and Commodore Dupont, representing in a general order, dated the 6th of that month, the helpless condition of the blacks within the vast area occupied by the forces under their command, and calling upon the benevolent and philanthropic of the land for aid. The President would be Francis George Shaw, Corresponding Secretary Rev. O. B. Frothingham,Recording Secretary George Cabot Ward, Treasurer Joseph B. Collins, the Executive Committee consisted of C. C. Leigh, Chas. Collins, Rev. Henry J. Fox and William Geo Hawkins. The advisory committee was S. H. Tyng, D. D. and Wm C. Bryant. (See American Missionary for an article on Port Royal and the beginning of the NFRA.)

The founding committee was appointed to organize an Association, to make a special appeal to the public, to appoint suitable teachers to instruct the Freedmen in industrial and mechanical arts, in the rudiments of education, the principles of Christianity, their accountability to the laws of God and man, their relation to each other as social beings, and all that might be necessary to render them competent to sustain themselves as members of a civilized