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I am assured was turned over to Sutherlin by Maj: Gen: Wrights order, but owing to Mr. Sutherlin's absence in the South before & since any claim was made by the Agent of the Freedmens Bureau (he having visited Cuba for his health & is now in N. Orleans) I have not been able to get the facts from him, though I personally know that no provost Marshal ever laid claim to, or took possession of this building, though its having been occupied as an Ordnance office was known to them all from the time of the surrender to the present claim.   There is no disposition on the part of Mr. Sutherlin to press an unsound claim but being in peaceable possession of a house on his own land, and his property never having been confiscated, nor any reason existing why it should now be so disposed of, some legal decision must determine the right.

The other house in controversy if I can rely on statements made to me is clearly the property of Mr. Sutherlin.  A private dwelling house, built on Sutherlins land, never used for any purpose of the rebellion, built by personal contract with an individual man of full age, is claimed because that individual was a detailed employee of the Confederate Govt. and might by possibility have

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-07-20 21:51:28