Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, popularly known as the Freedmen's Bureau or (mistakenly) the Freedman's Bureau, was established March 3, 1865 by the United States Department of War to aid distressed refugees of the United States Civil War, including former slaves and poor white farmers. The Bureau also controlled confiscated lands or property in the former Confederate States, some border states, District of Columbia and Indian Territory.

The Bureau was fully operational only from June 1865 through December 1868 and as disbanded in 1872.