Autograph Letter Signed, O.M. Legate," on U.S. Christian Commission Branch Office letterhead. Six pages, 7 3/4" x 9 3/4". Alexandria, Virginia. April 22, 1864. Accompanied by U.S. Christian Commission envelope addressed to Mrs. Nancy B.L. Severance, Leyden Mass. With circular Alexandria" and bulls-eye postal cancellations. Legate writes, in part: ... I have been now from home near four weeks. I spent first a few days in Washington, then went to Camp Convalescent four miles from the Capitol & stayed two weeks & then came here. I am engaged for the Christian Commission laboring in behalf of the soldiers ... Last Tuesday I was in Washington, and visited the Senate Chambers & House of Representatives & heard a spicy debate ... In the evening I visited the President & Lady of the White House in company with five or six thousands. I never was in such a squeeze. The President looked weary & care worn & yet there was something in his countenance which seemed to say I can patiently bear a good deal more yet. His wife was dressed like a bridge in white satin"! She is manifestly an ordinary talkative woman, fair. fat & forty. I staid [sic] there about an hour & left with a higher & stronger belief in the honesty of the President! ... I expect to stay here some two or three weeks longer & then go to Fortress Monroe ... Camp Convalescent is now know as Camp Distribution ... To it soldiers and parts of regiments are sent & thence distributed to the army ... Here also is a camp of deserters in which are usually found 500 or so. They are not tried here, but sent to their various Divisions ... if really deserters tried & punished by sending them to the dry Tortugas! I believe it is the present design of the Government to shoot no more ... I had some interesting conversations with old colored people most of whom are the friends of Jesus & looking earnestly for a blooming immortality ... Bitter indeed has been their present life. Their faith in God & Master Jesus seems unshaken. I have often asked them whether they expected that this war would work out their freedom, they uniformly hope it will, but it is hope mingled with fear. Till you gain their confidence they are not communicative. When once you gain their confidence they speak freely but the older ones mournfully, the younger are more hopeful as youth always is. God only knows how grievously the black man has been wronged in this professedly Christian land. Our Cook William had a sister; she was walking in the street one day when a white boy assaulted her child & she shook the boy, the next day she was arrestedshe was a free womanand sold into slavery for three years. This was before the war & she has never been heard from yet. Is it any wonder that God punishes such a nation! But the passage of the black man from the Egypt of slavery to the full Canaan of social intellectual & moral freedom will be through a terrible wilderness of more than forty years. Alexandria is an old city & like most southern cities dingy & dirty ... There are few Southern men here. Slaveholders do not presume exercise the least control over their servants. Very few of the Southern ladies know much of housekeeping & now that they have no slaves to do it for them there housekeeping is in a terrible muddle ... Every preparation is being made for the near approaching conflict. It's anticipation produces a most oppressive feeling. I shuddered when I reflect upon the near prospect of 500000 men coming in deadly conflict. God forbid that it should be in vain ... Very Fine.