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Office of 
Knoxville & Kentucky R. R. Co.
Knoxville, Tenn., June 10th 1867

Brig. Gen. O. Brown
Asst. Commissioner Freedmen Bureau
Richmond Va.

Dear Sir:
Since I last saw you in Richmond I have been engaged in the construction of a Rail Road from this point to the state line of Kentucky forming one of the links in a direct rail road connection between Cincinnati or Louisville and Charleston S.C.

Last year the supply of labor was tolerably good but it is now utterly insufficient for the demands of the three rail roads now building in East Tennessee.

I know that not very long since there was a great surplus of labor in Virginia and I write now to inquire whether it would be possible for us to hire four or five hundred able bodied colored men until Christmas next, at what wages they could be had, and whether government transportation would be furnished for them. We would of course wish to make a formal contract with them through the Freedmens Bureau.

The work upon which we are engaged is one on which fresh air and good water prevail everywhere, and the 

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