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We Should assist them in becoming Educated and Civilized for they are most Emphatically, almost, without either Education or Civilization, and having  been one of your Students at Mt. Pleasant Collegiate Institution, and knowing your disposition, so to try and ameliorate the Condition of Mankind, I Shall write freely Concerning our colored friends at this place & Fort Donelson. There are Schools, as both Both places, for their Instruction, but there are difficulties that I hope will be removed. The Teachers at Ft. Donelson are Not Allowed Rations and they are now Teaching for Twentyfive Dollars per Month & Subsisting Themselves which they Cannot do for a great length of time, as They Cannot Clothe Themselves at that rate - If Teachers of Freedmen Can be allowed Rations by the Government, there will be no trouble in procuring a  Sufficiency of Teachers- but, unless than much is Fronted by the Government, they will Soon, have returned to their Bureaus; In the Camp as this place there are nearly (1,400) fourteen hundred Colored persons of this number, there are near 300 Soldiers Wives, 600 Soldiers Children, And About 400 Old people and Orphans, who are helpless comparatively speaking. There Certainly, Should be, a "Special Order," to Apply

Transcription Notes:
Please pay some extra attention to the punctuation, because I am not sure if it is correct. Thanks! Editor 2: Freedmen's Bureau instructions say to ignore whether text is underlined, so I removed those notes