This work was greatly needed, especially for the old and the infirm, and it was well done.

The transportation of refugees did not reach large proportions, and after 1866 it was entangled in politics.

But the issue of supplies in huge quantities brought much needed relief though at the same time a certain amount of demoralization.

The Bureau claimed little credit, and is usually given none, for keeping alive during the fall and winter of 1865-1866 thousands of destitute whites.

Yet more than a third of the food issued was to whites, and without it many would have starved.