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a large part of it is already seized and taken possession of by the Authorities, and as our resources for a living were much diminished by the condition of Portsmouth at the time necessity compelled us to accept the inducements offered by my daughter in Alabama to make our home with her. I therefore again applied for and received a permit from Genl. Shelpley to return South with the family of my daughter who had continued during my absence in charge of my property and had been with me and constituted but are family for some years before the war. After leaving the last time that portion of my property in the hands of the Military Authorities was turned over to the Freedman's Bureau, and the whole of it is now in the custody of the same. In coming home, at the close of the war I find myself without any support- not a house to enter except by the charity of friends and no support unless I can obtain the rents of those which I am dispossessed- and two daughters dependent on me. I have not a piece of furniture even, for the comforts of a home if I could obtain one, even a piano the property of my daughter having been taken and carried off. I have committed no act of treason against the Government that I am aware of; whatever I have done in absenting myself at the time referred to were but the acts of a mother's care and solicitude

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-04-16 16:19:46 The last word is continued on the next page. It is included here per SI recommendation.