The United States government decided to follow a mostly hands-off policy toward the approximately three million freed African Americans in the years immediately following the Civil War. The Freedmen’s Bureau, created in 1865, was a limited exception to this policy. Under the direction of Union General Oliver O. Howard, it covered “all subjects relating to refugees and freedmen.” Although it provided much-needed food and educational opportunities to the formerly enslaved, the Freedman’s Bureau was a relatively weak, understaffed organization. It could do little to protect freedmen’s rights during Southern Reconstruction (1865-1877). Major Samuel Willard Saxton (1829-1933) of Deerfield, Massachusetts, was one the soldiers General Howard retained to serve in the Freedmen’s Bureau after the war. Saxton was named for Deerfield’s anti-slavery minister Samuel Willard. He wore this uniform coat and these epaulettes in the 1880s.
Coat of Major Samuel Willard Saxton (1829-1933). ca. 1880. Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, American Centuries. https://americancenturies.org/collection/1965-03-01-01/. Accessed on December 6, 2024.
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