Dickson, William G. (fl. 1861-1866) to E. Levassor
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC05732.01 Author/Creator: Dickson, William G. (fl. 1861-1866) Place Written: Savannah, Georgia Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 22 December 1865 Pagination: 3 p. ; 24.8 x 20 cm. Order a Copy
Dickson, who served as a Union Major during the Civil War, discusses recent personal events and reconstruction with his grandfather (possibly Eugene Levassor). Reports that he will soon begin working at the Office of the Treasury in Savannah. States that on his way to Savannah (from an unspecified location), he travelled with General Donaldson and Donaldson's wife. Relates seeing General Davis Tillson, the Assistant Commissioner for the United States Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. States that Tillson seeks to transfer his headquarters to Savannah, and that he "is meeting with the usual fate of public men who find it impossible to please everybody. The old slave owners abuse him because he insists on their paying the negroes good prices for their labor and Tribune and that class abuse him because he won't admit all they claim for the darkey."
Tillson served as Chief of Artillery of the Department of Ohio and head of defenses at Cincinnati, Ohio and Knoxville, Tennessee during the Civil War. Eugene Levassor served in Napoleon Bonaparte's army in France. After moving to several other countries, he settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, and finally retired to an estate in Covington, Kentucky.
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