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Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands,
Headquarters, Eastern District of North Carolina,
New Berne, N.C., Sept. 10th 1865.

Maj. Gen'l. O.O. Howard,

Very Dear Sir:
Your note of the 2nd did not reach me until tonight. I thank you for your kind promise contained therein. I did not expect to be relieved until Col. Whittlesey should return. The day he left Raleigh I wrote him a letter, very fully opining to him, and through him to you, my feelings and convictions respecting my personal duty at this time. I hope it has been forwarded to him, and that it has before this time met your eye. if so, you will perceive the conflict of duty which now agitates my mind. I sincerely want to do what I ought, what will most bless my country, what will most glorify God. At this distance from Washington, from New York, from Boston,- along the line of which places lie the interests which would absorb my