He proved as efficient in that field as he has since done in his present one.

I gave him all the assistants and guards he called for.

We together fixed the prices to be paid for the negro labor, whether rendered to the government or to individuals.

The cotton was to be picked from abandoned plantations, the laborers to receive the stipulated price (my recollection is twelve and a half cents per pound for picking and ginning) from the quartermaster, he shipping the cotton north to be sold for the benefit of the government.

Citizens remaining on their plantations were allowed the privilege of having their crops saved by freedmen on the same terms.
At once the freedmen became self-sustaining.