Freedmen's Bureau, a branch of the U.S. War Department from 1865 to 1872. Its full name was Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Its purpose was to give aid and protection to freedmen (former slaves) and destitute whites in the South after the Civil War. Among its functions were the settlement of freedmen on abandoned and confiscated lands in the South and the protection of their civil rights. The bureau also established schools, hospitals, charities, and employment agencies. Major General Oliver O. Howard was its head. The label “carpetbagger” was often applied scornfully to agents of the bureau by its opponents, mainly Southerners who resisted efforts to aid the former slaves.