Note: The following is part of a series of columns looking at the establishment and evolution of the banking system in Georgia and Bulloch County. The first banks established specifically for blacks were the Negro Military Banks, established by Union commanders in New Orleans; Norfolk, Va.; and then in Beaufort, S.C. Reverend John W. Alvord, General Sherman's attaché, met with wealthy philanthropists at NYC's National Exchange Bank Jan. 27, 1865 to talk about forming a Freedman's Bank. Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, an avowed abolitionist, wrote the bill chartering The Freedmen's Bank in NYC on April 4, 1865.