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I am therefore induced to ask your assistance although I have no claims on you either as a friend or relative. Enclosed you will find [?] of two letters written to me by a former member of this Regt. He was 1st Lieut. of a Co. I answered his first letter accepting the offer; the second letter explains itself. I showed the letters to my Capt. and he advised me to write to you or some other prominent man; and his recommendation together with a favorable notice from those at home forwarded to the Governor might place me in a more favorable position. Many sneer at the idea of arming the blacks but if we fight for freedom why not fight with the banners of freedom floating over us and why not fight by the side of the oppressed. For my part I am tired of fighting in a political army for this or that particular General. I want to get from politics to principles; then I can fight with a whole heart. Every day brings us nearer the death struggle of the rebellion and more earnest and deadly will be the work before us than that of 62. But we are ready, no one thinks now we are weak, except the howling cur dog traitors of North It is yet to be ascertained what name history will give such beings no word of our language should be degraded to designate them