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Assaults which were reported to the Freedmen's Bureau were almost always refered to someone else. Agent Jackson had neither the authority nor the support from the local police force to pursue any cases beyond written requestes for justice. The lack of funding also rendered the Bureau inaffective in its pursuit of justice. Resentment in Augusta County was strong toward both freed blacks and northern carpetbaggers. Of the many letters sent to the Bureau concerning assaults, Agent Jackson received a letter from two brothers who had served in the Union army, asking for legal assistance after they had been attacked by some local men. In the letter, the two brothers ask for advice in how to pursue the matter. The two men feel that since they had served the Union government, they should receive help from that same government, in the form of the Freedmen's Bureau. Receiving aid in the prosecution of southern whites who had assaulted either blacks or northern whites was difficult. Agent Jackson made this piont painfully clear when he reported to his superior officer in Winchester, Captian John A. McDonnell, that "the prosecuting officer will not willingly perform his duty as a public officer" when Jackson asked him to prosecute any attackers. Jackson writes about three cases involving whites firing upon freedmen and expresses his concern that no retrobution will be taken.
 Agent Jackson also had to deal with reports of child abuse. In a letter to Joseph Milsted of Augusta County, Jackson states that he received a notice from a black man named Peyton Harris complaining "of bad treatment of his child" by Milsted's wife and that Milsted had tried to break an agreement made with Harris. Jackson sternly reminds Milsted that he has no right to either threaten or break contracts with any black citizens. Again, this case was never resolved.
 In one case, the Bureau received a letter from a white man named Kline, complaing that Jackson had not followed up on a promise to remove an abusive black man named James Bell living with his family. The letter details that Kline had dropped a court case between Bell and himself on the grounds that Jackson would dispose of Bell. Kline claims that Bell was abusing his family and his own children and states that Bell "curses you the Bureau myself and every white man." Jackson and the Bureau received numerous letters concerning assault, each more different from the next. Whether a letter decribed a simple assault or a shooting, the complaints were difficult to handle. Some attacks were white on white, white on black, and in one case a black woman even attacked another black woman with a pitchfork. In any case, little could be done by the Bureau. Local prosecuters and courts refused to prossess any of the charges, and the Bureau was hamstrung by its lack of authority to intervene in local legal affairs. Agent Jackson wrote Commonwealth Attorny Bumgarner on numerous occasions, asking him to prosecute the many assaults which had been reported to him. No mention of any of the cases refered to Bumgarner by Jackson could be found in the Augusta County court records. The Bureau could only refer the cases elsewhere when they could, namely to other agents in other districts. |