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Office Superintendent R.F and AL
District No 1. State of Virginia
Norfolk, Va. November 22nd 1865

Colonel:

In obedience to your orders contained in an endorsement on a letter of Mr Tazewell Taylor in behalf of Mr William E Taylor, to Maj. Gen Howard, and sent down through your office to me, I beg leave to present the following report.

The Case in question is the "Taylor Mill." I premise by saying, that the Mill was in operation when I assumed the duties of Superintendent R.F and AL, of the 1st Dist of Va, and from verbal orders received, I continued to operate it, together with several others I found running in the district until August 1st 1865, when it was leased to Mr Wm. H Hunt, Esq. The mill was run under this contract until the 1st of October 1865 when I received the following order by telegraph, a copy of which I herewith enclose, marked "A." This order was obeyed by notifying the parties leasing the Mill, that the Contract with this Bureau was annulled by order of Col. O. Brown, but made arrangements to carry out the second part of the order, viz- to cut 50.000 feet of Coffin boards.

To do this I employed the hands used by the Gentlemen who had been operating the Mill up to this time.

On the 14th of October 1865, I received the following telegram, Copy sent herewith marked "B." This telegram I construed to mean, cut the 50.000 feet and then close, as ordered by telegram of Oct. 1st. I did not therefore stop the sawing, as I had not then completed the amount of Lumber called for by the order referred to. On the 28th of October I received another telegram

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