Major General Gordon Granger

     
     Major General Gordon Granger was given command of the Department of Texas on 10 June 1865, and upon his arrival in Galveston on June 19, issued General Order No. 3:

The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property, between former masters and slaves and the connection heretofore existing between them, becomes that between employer and hired labor. The Freedmen are advised to remain at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts; and they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.

Also, among other things, Granger declared that anyone possessing public property had to turn it over to the United States Army. This included cotton that was pledged to the Confederate government, usually half of each planter's crop. Then, to make matters worse, all privately owned cotton was to be turned in to the army for compensation.
     
     Granger must have known that his order was license to steal. Dishonest Union Treasury agents profited by taking, without compensating the owners, privately owned cotton by claiming it could not be distinguished from that which was pledged. On the one hand, Granger encouraged freedmen to stay with their former masters and work for wages, but on the other hand, greatly lessened the planters' ability to pay those wages. Furthermore, the Freedmen's Bureau had not yet been established in Texas, so the welfare of freedmen was almost wholly dependent on their former masters.

     Granger traveled around the state delivering his message for six weeks, and on 6 August was relieved of his command and replaced by General Horatio G. Wright.