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                                                      37 Lexington St
                                                      Baltimore
                                                      August 9, 1892

My dear friend,

      I send you here with the first draft of my statement.  I have no copy.  Halsey offered to copy it for me if I waned keep it till Monday.  He would have to copy on Sunday, but as it involved delay, I thought I had better risk it as it was as you probably wanted to see what I had written.  I have tried to write in my very best hand and hope you will be able to make out what is intended.  Some of the underlining may bother you.  There are one or two places or more where I have erased in pencil & put a mark of interrogation which means that you must strikeout or not as you judge best.

It is a mere matter of taste. "Dry Nurse" for instance, I would have stated more in detail your ______ to saving Lee's army but I was really tired & then I knew that you could do it so much better that I thought I would allude to it briefly so as to remind you of it if it has escaped your memory. You did not mention it as one of the points on which you wished my recollection.

I am really assamed of the paper which I send you but I can not write it over. I can not copy & therefore if I do not send I must write it all over. Do read it carefully and make such alterations in style as your good judgement may suggest. Afraid that I once or twice _____ the error of attacking Davis but have stricken it all out where I have seen it in rereading.

I wish very much I could see you after you have read it over. Please write me fully about it. I am even now very strongly inclined to write the whole of it. My allusion to Lee was "done with a purpose" as ____ will in his reply to Column. We have a hard battle to fight & must make all ____ ____ _____.

I thought it not bad to quote Sir Robert again & Mr. Jefferson David son, as poor Floyd used to call him.

Do write me as soon as you get this & let me know if it will do & when you are going to publish.

I am dear friend in haste very _______ ________, Wigfall

(A very distinguished C.S. Senator and my devoted friend)