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To the Hon George W. Bond, Judge of Probate for Mobile County:

In answer to the application of Sylvia White, freedwoman, claiming to have her children Tom & Ned now in my possession returned to her, I beg leave to submit the following statement for the information of the military authorities.

That the woman Sylvia before the surrender belonged to me and had then four children and has one born since making give, that she never [[strikethrough]] hal [[/strikethrough]] had any recognized husband up to the time he last saw her, that the woman [[strikethrough]] be [[/strikethrough]] is not healthy and has all her life been subject to repeated and severe attacks of rheumatism which entirely disable her during their continuance and that she has been wholly unable up to the last time he saw her and ever since she became free to make a support for herself and family. As soon as she became free she departed without notice taking with her an infant at the breast and was gone about a week wandering about the county. I was then living at Butter, Choctaw Co., ala. During her absence [[strikethrough]] I [[/strikethrough]] the three children Tom, Ned and Wylie being in my hands without any means of support, I gave bread and security under