A handwritten, two-page letter from Charles Alston to General Gilmore in which he petitions to regain possession of his house on East Battery in Charleston, South Carolina, which had been assigned to General Rufus Saxton following the Civil War. Alston argues that the house was never abandoned during the war because enslaved people remained in the outbuildings. On the back, the request is denied by Union officials such as Rufus Saxton and W. L. Burger.
