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Harvard Hospital
Lauderdale Miss. Jan 25 1867

Major A. W. Preston
A. A. A. Genl
Dist Mississippi

Sir

In regard to the letter of Mr. R. E. Wilson of Lawrence Station, Newton Co. Miss dated January 17, 1867 complaining that admittance had been refused at this Hospital to one Henry Murphy colored freedman &c. I have the honor to report that about the middle of this month, said freedman was brought to this hospital, and his admission refused for the following reasons.

The attendant upon the man stated that he was sent here by no authority, that he had no transportation, but that Wilson wished to get the man, who was & is, a maniac pinioned & led by a rope, away from that neighborhood, he being well known to be a dangerous man if not confined & that he had been chained to a post in the station wood yard for about 6 months.

There being no suitable place here for this class of cases, and being limited in attendants by the usual hospital rules, I declined to admit the man, and addressed a letter of explanation to Mr Wilson to the above effect, adding that this was a hospital and not a lunatic asylum, & suggested that Jackson was the proper place for the man, And I regret that the letter was not sent to your office with his complaint.

There are now here three insane women who give more trouble than all the rest of the hospital because we have no enclosure,

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