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Bureau Refugees Freedmen &c
Office Provost Marshal & Asst. Supt.
Prince Wm Co. Va. Brentsville Jan'y 15" 1866.

Maj. James Johnson
Supt. 10" Dist Va

Sir:

I have the honor to inform you that a dastardly outrage was committed in this place yesterday. (Sunday.) within sight of my office, the circumstances of which are as follows. A freedman named James Cook was conceived to be "impudent" by a white man named John Cornwell; whereupon the whiteman cursed him and threatened him. The freedman, being alarmed, started away and was followed and threatened with "You d__d black Yankee son of a b__h I will kill you"; and was fired upon with a pistol, the ball passing through his clothes. He was then caught by the white man, and beaten with the but of a revolver, and dragged to the door of the jail near where the affair occurred, where he was loosened and escaped. He came to me soon after, bleeding from a deep cut over the eye and reported the above, which was substantiated to me as fact by several witnesses. I have heard both sides of the case fully, and the only charge that is brought against the freedman is "impudence"; and while being pounced upon as a "d__d Yankee", and cursed, and called all manner of names, this "impudence" consisted in the sole offense of saying that he had been in the union army and was proud of it. No other "impudence" was charged against him. I know the freedman well, and know him to be uncommonly intelligent, inoffensive and respectful.

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