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I cannot imagine - we have hundreds of white & black who are now staying in the woods about here - cannot get houses to live in. You will recall that the "Old College" was full when you were here, but the soldiers now occupy that & have driven them all out. If the "Bureau" could send me some provisions, & let me put them in some store & give orders to those that were actually suffering, & not let any one know that they were for the poor, so that every one would be after them, I think it would be a first rate thing - for they will suffer and are suffering for the want of something to eat. I have proposed to several of the colored people to go to the poor farm, but the reply is "I will die before I will go there, I ask them why, they say that the man who keeps the farm is so cruel on colored people that they could not stand it. Some say that they have heard the poor fellows hollow half mile, when he was punishing them. The "conservatives' are now very friendly to the negro, but they would not give him a Dollar to keep him from starving. What the poor creatures will do, it is hard to tell. You can talk with the Genl & if you should conclude it was best to send up some provisions you can do so & I will do the very best I can for the faithful distribution of them.

Yours truly
Joel Terrell