Viewing page 237 of 237

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

It being harvest season all are busily at work.

A Report has been made by the presiding Magistrate to Gen Stoneman that a Company of Negroes had been organized in his Magisterial Dist. I wrote to him to give me the names of the officers and any other information that would assist me in finding out who they were, and what they were organized for, but he gives me no answer- but from careful enquiries, I find it grew out of the fact that a Mr. Bird in his neighborhood, made a speach  to the colored people one Saturday and a few of them carried muskets as they say to shoot squirils on the road, Mr Bird on his oath sayes that he advised them that it was against existing orders to go armed, and since that they have not been. the above mentioned magistrate- George L. Bagley- I am informed is what they call one of the Captains of fifties in the Conservatives, political organization, and I presume he saw that it was going to be difficult for him to controll