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Galveston 8th May 1866  
Sir

We respectfully wish to be informed by what authority you have placed an armed sentinel in our store; we consider you have no right to do so. Mr. Southwick denies ever having given you permission to take the water from our cistern without our consent. This we never witheld, until the messenger you sent became so disagreeable to us that we begged you to send some else. You however, refused to accede to our wishes and persistently persevered in trying to provoke a quarrel with us by thrusting this man upon us.
Without going into the merits or demerits of the case, which we shall be prepared to do whenever the proper time arrived, we assert positively, that you have no right forcibly to take this water from our cistern without consulting our feelings on the matter, any more than you have forcibly to enter any other store on the strand for a similar object.

We are sir
Very respectfully
Your Obedt. Servts. 
Sidstone & Barnes

To Col Sinclair
In absence of Genl. Kiddoo