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0709

To Major General Howard
Chief of the Freedman's Bureau
Washington D.C.

I, the undersigned, Fanny Toomer, respectfully represent and state that I am a citizen of the City of Portsmouth in the State of Virginia, and that in January 1862 in order to continue the education of my two youngest daughters I sent them to Alabama, where they might be under the guidance and control of an older sister settled in that state; and in May of that year, this city being evacuated and all communication with my children cut off, I applied in June following to Genl. Viele then in command for a permit to leave for the purpose of relieving my anxiety about them, which was granted with the privilege of returning. After visiting them I was so circumstanced that I could not return as soon as I expected although anxious and continually expecting to do so and my return was in consequence protracted until October 1864. Upon my return I found much sickness in the family of my eldest daughter who had lived in my own family and at the time continued to do so (our joint families being but one) and I believe the health and life of some of its members depended upon going South. As all my property (real estate and furniture) had been claimed and