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Bureau Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands,
OFFICE SURGEON-IN-CHIEF.
FOR THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI,
Vicksburg, Miss., February 24 1868

Lieutenant Merrett Barber
AAAG.

Lieutenant,
In answer to your letter, asking "What have been my opportunities for knowing Lt Williams, Inspector for this Sub District, and to make report of the same, I would respectfully state, that I have known Lt Williams, intimately for a year and a half both officially and socially as an officer. I have never entertained myself or heard expressed by others but one opinion, viz. that he is one of the most efficient faithful and energetic officers in the state, with regard to his sobriety will say, I have frequently met him in the social circle with other officers, where if he was ever inclined to indulge to excess he would in all probability have manifested it then and there. Still I have never known or seen anything approximating inebriety, nor have I ever heard of anything of the kind charged against Lt. Williams, until I received your letter containing the quoted paragraph, but I do now and have always

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