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layed. So far as I am concerned, I may say, that, when I came to Richmond, after having marched from Deep Bottom, to Hatchers Run, and from thence to before Petersburgh on the 2nd Apl? 1865, as well as having followed Gen Lee to Appomattux C.H., where he surrendered-- I was as ragged as a man ought to be, not because I had no means, (as Government owed me) but because I could not get it, This is the reason that the Chaplain Commission gave me your needle case, I could not purchase, the contents of such an article, for want of pay, and, the Commission kindly dealt out to me, that which might have been really intended for a more honorable recipient, Nevertheless, it was as duly appreciated by me, being in? the employ? of the government, though a Chaplain, as it would have been by the bravest and most worthy soldier in the army; therefore you may say to the "Ladie's Aid Society of Steuben, Oneida Co, N, Y. that your needle case came safe to hand, to one who needed such an article; and to one who was most deeply interested in the well being and well doing of our soldiers, not forgetting an interest in the final triumph of our cause. So far as I now remember, I distributed, among our soldiers quite a number of articles sent by the "aid? Society, of Steuben" and the "Society" may rest assured that the thanks of our boys were deeply felt, though you may not have heard yet from them, either by word or letter, The fact, that these things were received, after the surrender of Lee, and while at Richmond, does not lessen the gratitude of those who shared in your benevolence, and for this reason-- that, though, the unclear could have been had in the city, yet