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[[strikethrough]] Chief Medical [[/strikethrough]] Office, Surg-in-chf. Headquarters Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, New Orleans, La., Aug. 31. 1867. Maj. Gen. O. O. Howard, General, I address you with much diffidence because of my unaffected reluctance to trouble you with a matter purely personal to myself. This day I received S.O. No. 422 C.S., A.G.O., mustering me out to take effect Nov. 1st prox. Just after being sent here in the midst of disease, pestilence and death, I confess that this Order is as much to my surprise as it is far from my wishes. Under the circumstances I think that it was not unreasonable to expect that, if not stricken down by the hands of God, I would be left undisturbed by man, till spring at least. Indeed I indulged the hope that I would be allowed to remain here till the present "Lease" of the Bureau expires next July; and I had partly arranged any domestic affairs for a residence