Viewing page 132 of 229

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Claiborne Monroe Co Ala
November 14th 1865

Brig. Genl. Wager Swayne
Asst. Commissioner B.R.F. & A.L.
Montgomery Alabama

[[stamp]]THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE UNITED STATES[[/stamp]]

General
The trial of Bowden for complicity in the murder of the Sallie family of five Freedmen and the trial of Caswell Lambert as accessory to the murder of two Freedmen has closed, and although no Evidence was adduced which could convict the parties (two of my most important witnesses being absent under Strong Suspicion of being abducted Still the testimony was clear and convincing to unprejudiced mind that the parties were guilty but the long array of witnesses to prove a alibi were over whelming and in their Eagerness to acquit the prisoners they in most instances gave testimony at variance with other Statements and in instances