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Office Bureau Refugees Freedmen & A. L. 
District North Alabama. 
Huntsville Ala. Aug. 9. 1866 

Col C. Cadle Jr. 
A. A. Genl. 
Montgomery Ala. 

Colonel, 
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 2nd inst, in which you ask me to furnish a full account of the difficulty which occurred at this place sometime ago, during the performance of a babtismal ceremony by the colored people. In reply I would respectfully submit the following statement: ― 
On Sabbath afternoon, the 22nd of July, the members of the colored Babtist church assembled at the Spring for the purpose of performing the rite of babtism upon some candidates for admission to their church. The proximity of the Spring, combined with some peculiarities of the ceremony, usually draws out a large number of spectators. On this occassion, the assemblage of whites and blacks was unusually large, and nothing had transpired to mar the solemnities of the occasion until some drunken soldiers (five in number) made their appearance on the ground, who, in the spirit, of malevolence which they have