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proved that mostlty after at the pace of Richmond office of the q.m. Cept. at first in charge of the wood, boun d it over to the office of the necessary  Dept. and the latter were in charge of the same as the date of Mr Loomis' letter Oct 25 1865
[[Strikethrough]] The Board has been instructed to discover[[/Strikethrough]] form the [[Strikethrough]] [[?]] [[/Strikethrough]] discharge and disposal of most of the offices connected with government in this vicinity in 1865 it has been impossible  for this Board to ascertain with any certainty if this [?]  was ever turned over from the Treasury Dept or how it was [[?]] on a dropped form the books and papers of the same. There is no no evidence this is that it was ever [[Strikethrough]] in the [[/Strikethrough]] taken up by the Bureau RF. & AL.
The owner of the land Mr W.B Gates was for a long time been a claimant for the formal restoration of the wood to himself - chiefly as the grounds of the compulsory nature of the transaction and that it was not a sale on his part. [[Strikethrough]] This [[/Strikethrough]] It is not supposed that the Board is expected to enter into this question - as is [[Strikethrough]] is [[/Strikethrough]] previously been addressed to higher authority.
The Board therefore reports that the wood upon the above mentioned land was in 1865 held by the [[Strikethrough]] officers [[/Strikethrough]] agent of the US.