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from them and sold by soldiers who pretended to "have orders to do so. In this they were assisted by the citizens who would gladly inform them of any unlucky negro who possessed a weapon of any kind, and the Freedmen quietly submited to the robbery thinking whatever the [[underlined]] Yankees [[/underlined]] do is right. One soldier after robbing a negro of his pistol offered to sell it back for five dollars. Have not yet been able to identify the soldier in any instance. The taking of arms away from the Freedmen has been very general in the Counties West of this place, by Militia and self delegated authorities, probably on the supposition that it was necessary to prevent a [[underlined]] rebellion [[/underlined]] or lest the negroes might secede about Christmas from the plantations. Which supposition however there is not a probability of being true.

A great many complaints come from the other side of the Alabama line, which I am not able to attend to. They still continue to run off their hands and have evidently forgotten that there has ever been a war. That Country has always had a bad reputation. Have had only one citizen hired this month No blanks