CHARLES E. CULVER, A RECONSTRUCTION AGENT IN TEXAS: THE WORK OF LOCAL FREEDMEN'S BUREAU AGENTS AND THE BLACK COMMUNITY James Smallwood During Reconstruction in Texas as in the rest of the South, members of the "Democracy" vilified Negroes, "scalawags," and "carpetbaggers." Echoing those sentiments, later historians pointed to the "crimes" of Reconstruction. One group that particularly drew the ire of ex-Confederates and later historians was the personnel of the Freedmen's Bureau, an agency which was composed almost exclusively of northerners . Sometimes seriously threatened, sometimes simply insulted as "Damn Yankee bureau men," the agents who staffed local bureau stations were regarded by many southerners as interlopers who upset the "Southern way of Life."' Most importantly, southerners believed that bureau personnel lacked understanding of the "Negro problem." Contemporary whites and some later historians tended to believe that the bureau's only purpose was to subjugate the South politically and that individuals who worked for the agency wanted only monetary rewards.2 1 Charles E. Culver to James Kirkman, June 15, 1867, Letters Sent, vol. 78, Sub-Assistant Commissioner, Cotton Gin, Texas, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, Record Group 105, National Archives, Washington, D.C, hereafter abbreviated as BRFAL, RG105, NA; also see James M. Smallwood, Time of Hope. Time of Despair: Black Texans During Reconstruction (New York, 1981), passim. 2 See, for example, the comments of Culver to Kirkman, July 13, Aug. I, 1867, Letters Sent, vol. 78, Sub-Assistant Commissioner, Cotton Gin, Texas, BRFAL, RG105, NA; see James M. Smallwood, "Black Texans During Reconstruction," (Ph.D. diss., Texas lech University, 1974), pp. 1-30, for an historiographical overview of the Reconstruction "schools"; also see Francis B. Simkins, "New Viewpoints of Southern Reconstruction," Journal of Southern History 5 (Feb. 1939): 49-61, and Bernard A. Weisberger, "The Dark and Bloody Ground of Reconstruction Historiography," Journal of Southern History 25 (Nov. 1959): 427-47. Civil War History, Vol. XXVII, No. 4 Copyright © 1981 by The Kent State Universitv Press 0009-8078/81/2704-0004 $01.00/0 RECONSTRUCTION IN TEXAS351 Recent scholarship reveals, however, that such a view needs a reanalysis . This writer's previous examination of the attitudes and performance of a local bureau agent in Texas, William S. Kirkman, demonstrates that a more balanced view of the agency's personnel may be warranted.3 Charles E. Culver's Reconstruction career is another case in point. Perhaps the findings about Kirkman and the following report about Culver might spur other investigators to begin a close examination of the careers of more local agents in districts throughout the South to discover if Culver (and Kirkman) are typical or atypical. If future findings prove their cases typical, then the old depiction of local bureau agents stands in need of revision. Certainly, the United States Congress had in part noble motives when it established the bureau in 1865. Northern leaders originally planned for the agency to continue for only one year after the end of the Civil War. But when southern states passed the black codes and thus made known their determination to resist equality for Negroes, Congress renewed the bureau in 1866 over President Andrew Johnson's veto and every year thereafter until 1870. As first conceived, the agency had varied responsibilities , including programs to resettle abandoned lands and to help any white refugees who needed aid, but its main function was to help exslaves adjust to their new status as free men. In Texas, because there were no abandoned lands to adjudicate, agents supervised relief projects, took jurisdiction over blacks if state courts appeared prejudicial , and tried to limit widespread violence which victimized segments of both black and white communities. Bureau officials also encouraged freedmen and their employers to honor labor contracts which followed bureau guidelines and sought to found and maintain schools and churches for Negroes.4 Problems beset the bureau in Texas. Not only did the agency enter the state at a late date, but it only slowly recruited personnel and established local offices. After the first assistant commissioner of the bureau for Texas, General E. M. Gregory, reached the state in September of 1865, he established headquarters in Galveston and named subassistants who staffed sixteen...