| Clarksville Tennessee |
| January 22nd 1866 |
| |
| Maj. W. G. Bond |
| Agt Freedman's Bureau |
| Clarksville Tennessee |
| |
| Sir, |
| I arrived here today after an absence of about four
years, & find my Residence situated on the corner of Franklin & 3rd
Street is in your possession as Agt of the Bureau R F & A and that the
same is held as abandoned property. |
| I very respectfully request your consideration of the
following facts which shall expect my whole connection with the late
rebellion & my present relation to the U. S. Govt. |
| On the day before the fall of Fort Donaldson I upon the
earnest solicitation of my wife, and persuant to my own conviction of
duty to my family & self, left Clarksville, bound for Memphis where the
greater part of my & my wifes property was situated, and much of it so
situated as to require immediate attendance. |
| To reach & secure this property was my main object on
leaving Clarksville. |
| Secondary to this object, & persuant to what I regarded
as a duty to the MC&L RR Company {Memphis,
Clarksville & Louisville RR}, I had in view the protection of
their rolling stock where by order of Genl Johnston was moved south of
the Tenn River. In this thus I followed but did not move the said
property, for no power existed that could have arrested its movement
southward. |
| Soon after my arrival at Memphis, my prior home. I
removed with my family to Mississippi where I there owned a plantation,
there I remained taking no part in the war, but quietly persuing
agricultural life, until sickness in my family and frequent depredations
of soldiers from the Miss River, rendered my continued residence there
impossible, while the only practicable escape therefrom was to the
interior then occupied by Rebels, within whose lines I remained until
cessation of hostilities. |
| I never was enlisted in the Rebel Army. I never held
offices Civil or Military under the so called Confederate States. I took
the amnesty oath in Macon Ga, in the month of May 1865. I have not
violated the same to this date. |
| Under the circumstances I cannot think the property
referred to can be held as abandoned property. None of the exceptions to
a general amnesty apply to me. |
| In view of the foregoing I very respectfully request an
order for the delivery of the said property to me as soon as
practicable. I exhibit to you herewith my title papers to the property
herein referred to. |
| I will add that this property has never been libeled or
confiscated by the courts of the United States. |
| Very Respectfully |
| Geo. B. Fleece |