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and which is now being used as a colored school.
It was occupied for this purpose prior to my assuming control of the Bureau in this State. having been found vacant on the occupation of the City by the U.S. Forces and assigned to the agents of your Society - by Gen. C.C. Andrews.
Dr G. C. Nott as Dean of the Faculty agreed to leave the building in our possession provided we would repair the roof and the windows. the latter having been mostly destroyed by the explosion. This I was about to do under the impression that I could use the funds of the Bureau for the purpose. But having since learned that the funds cannot be so used, I proposed to Dr. Nott that the Trustees of the College should at once make the necessary repairs and if when they were finished I did not obtain the money from your Society or from some other source and refund the amount so expended. I would return the building to their charge. Dr. Nott has become impressed with the idea that the dignity of the institution is nationally injured in fact totally destroyed by its present occupants and is making every exertion to get possession of the building. He charges that the "little dirty schoolmasters and mistresses are gradually removing the beautiful wax models &c" and that $20.000 would not replace the specimens so abstracted.

I have caused the charge to be investigated by my officers at Mobile and find it un-sustained. Not an article has been taken from the Museum or Labratory since its occupancy by the school. Prior to this the soldiers had had access to the building and some few specimens may have been taken but no such amount as Dr. Nott alleges. The Supt of the schools has kept all the rooms

containing articles pertaining to the College locked and no one is allowed access to them except in his presence. And I long ago ordered that Dr. Nott have every opportunity to keep a man in charge of these articles, which would not, if the building were empty, be safe without such guard. Dr. Nott states that the amount I propose to expend as re-muneration for two years rent ($3000) is entirely insufficient, that it will cost at least $10,000 to repair it.
The cost of the necessary repairs to the roof and windows has been estimated by builders at Mobile at Two Thousand Dollars. In addition to this there are some repairs required in the plastering &c, which may cost five hundred dollars more. The building can be turned over to the Trustees at the end of the years in as good condition as it was before the war, much better than we received it. For three thousand dollars. The people of Mobile are violently opposed to colored schools They have burned two buildings used for that purpose, one a Presbyterian Church. This building they will not burn for it is a public property. There is not another building in the City that can be obtained that would not be in danger of destruction.

Dr. Nott, I am advised, admits that the building if returned to the Trustees would not be used for two years, as a Medical College, but states that he and the parties interested cannot bear to have the building used for teaching a "lot of nigger children" when it was built for the purpose of "educating the noble young men of the State of Alabama". Dr. Nott has been summoned to Washington as a witness in the "Wirz Trial". While there he will make application to the President to have the building restored to him.
I have made this statement of facts in order that you may take such measures as may be

Transcription Notes:
Dr. Josiah Clark Nott was the head surgeon at the college. Unsure what the "trial" he was a witness to in Washington DC (did a google search) - found a "Wirz" Trial Washington D.C. Military Court