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                                        Jan, 1864

{Written sideways by another hand (possible Brigadier General Issac J. Wistar)

   Respectfully returned
   Let Mrs. Galt be
   undisturbed & all
   others like her.
         I J [?Wistar]
                  BG
     Feb 3/64 }

          Colonel West, You must

pardon me for this trespassing on your time but I cannot forbear mak- ing an appeal to your feelings. I may [?] your justice on my behalf

                 I think that you might

possibly mitigate the sentence of taking the oath to me, so that I might remain I have never given information in any way to the 'enemy' (confederates) indeed I have no temptation to write to any of them because I have not a relation in the army or in the wide world nearer than a distant Cousin.

              Never were[?] more

strictly kept than I kept those made by the Federals. If you would grant me only an extension of time even a few days & I might get a letter from Miss [?} to whom I have writ- ten on the subject & her intercession may be of avail. For I would tell you of wonders she has acheived in her life, both in this country & in Europe in doing a kind action [?][?] all [?] never [?]

[2] There never was since the world began, a rule without exception. & I cant but think I might be made this exception, because there is no one in the world more friendly & desolate than myself. I think it is possible that you may know that I have never said an unkind word [?] as of any of the Federals. General Grover said in May 1862 when he was Governor of Williamsburg that I should be [?] & have every kindness ex- tended to me, because I was so kind to his people. Dr. Alexander one of your surgeons from Chambersburg Penn. (I believe) asked me to give him my name in writing, that he might mention in on of the northern newspapers how kind I had been to the Federal soldiers who were sick in Williamsburg, after the Battle of Fort McGruder.