District Enrolling Office
| Canton, August 22, 1864 |
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| Capt. J. N. Archer |
| Commanding Post, Canton, Miss. |
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| Captain, |
| I respectfully submit the following
report in case of A.D. Sheldon, a citizen of this place and an employee
of the Mississippi Central Railroad:
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| Upon assuming the duties of enrolling officer
at this place in April last I immediately inspected his papers, in
order to determine his status, and was informed that he was an employee
on the Mississippi Central Railroad, running from this place to
Grenada, and that he was not then actually engaged on the railroad,
being employed in carrying out a contract made by Colonel Goodman,
president of the Mississippi Central Railroad, with the Confederate
States of America for the purpose of bringing out goods from the
enemy's lines in exchange for cotton, and exhibited to me a pass
from Maj. Gen. S. D. Lee, approved by General Wirt Adams,
instructing all guards and pickets to pass him through our lines at
all times until further orders, a copy of which is at this time
impracticable to furnish, said A.D. Sheldon being absent.
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| I wrote to Colonel Goodman, the president of
the railroad, in order to satisfy myself more fully as to the truth
of the foregoing statements, and in a subsequent conversation had
with him they were fully sustained.
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| Mr. Sheldon was reported through this office,
in conformance with the requirements of the law, on the monthly
reports of the railroad made to the commandant for Mississippi, and
now holds his exemption papers as an employee of aforesaid road.
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| Respectfully submitted |
| C. N. Chilton |
| Lieutenant and Enrolling Officer |
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