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To Maj. Gen Hancock commanding the fifth Military District,
Your petitioners W.E. Hart and O.P. Boyd citizens of Titus County in the State of Texas, humbly complaining, respectfully represent, that on, or about the day of October 1867 they were arrested by one Col. Star U.S.A. commanding U.S. forces at Mt Pleasant in said county and state upon the complaint of one W.C. Beal a citizen of the same county and state, which complaint charged in substance that your petitioners Hart & Boyd had by force caused four freedmen to quit the premises and employment of said Beal about the last of January 1867, and had by force compelled said freedmen to remain with them (Hart & Boyd) up to the time of said arrest. Petitioners state that it was proven on the trial, or rather, sham trial