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San Antonio, Texas, 
Sept 17th 1866.

J.B. Kiddoo, Brevet Major
General Assistant Commissioner,

Sir - I see in your report to Gen. Howard, that it is, and has been, impossible for you to procure competent & trusty Agents for your Department, & that you are now trying to employ ex-U.S. Officers, instead of Citizen Agents. 

Thinking that I could, & would give entire satisfaction, in the capacity of an Agent in your Department, I would respectfully ask of you an Appointment as such, thinking of course that I can give you the necessary recommendation, as to competency, sobryety and veracity, & I know that I can take the Oath without any reluctance, for my sympathy is, & ever has been, with the Freedmen. I was not a Commissioned Officer however, (only Segt Major) I served in the 21st Illinois Vol-Vet Inf't for four years & eight months - in my first Servise I was under Gen' Grant, (who came out Col' of the above Regiment) for 4 months, receiving my first Diciplin direct from him. Was subsequently under command of Gen's Rosecrans, Grant & Sherman as Department & District Commanders, & participated in the Campaigns of the Army of the Cumberland, from the organization of that Department, untill the termination of the war, when our Corps (the 2nd) was removed from Nashville, Tenn., to Texas, in July 1865. My Regt (the 21st Ill) came with Gen' Stanley, to San Antonio, where we were his Headquarter Guard untill the Reg't was mustered out. I was mustered out & discharged at this place on the sixteenth of December 1865, & can produce a good an honorable discharge 

Hoping General, that you give me a trial, & that you  

Transcription Notes:
sobryety = sobriety