Walthourville Liberty Co Geo Decr 20/66
General, Stephen Baker Cold aged 76 years is now before me & states that he & a little boy constitute his whole working force– They two together have raised 30 bushels of corn & 30 bushels of rice this year– Out of this he has to support & clothe himself his disabled & decrepit wife and three small children– He has applied to me to take off his hands his brother Prince Bacon aged over 100 years, & who was a young man in the revolutionary war– Old Stephen has been supporting him throughout & finding himself sinking into the arms of impotent age calls for help to perform a duty towards his brother– Prince has children at a distance but they will do nothing for their aged parent– In fact they are old themselves–
I report this case as one that merits assistance not only on account of the aged 100 year-old Prince–but also to assist old Stephen who has heroically supported his brother till now that he can do so no longer– Respectfully
E Yulee
[Savannah, Ga.] December 21″ [186]6
Sir Your communication of the 20″ inst. in regard to the aged freedman Prince–is received. The Assistant Commissioner directs me to reply that he can be received into the Freedmens Hospital, in this city, where he will be taken care of Upon your application, transportation, and an order for his admission thereto, will be forwarded to you I am very Respectfully, Your Obt Servant
Eugene Pickett
E Yulee to Bvt. Majr Genl Davis Tillson, 20 Dec. [18]66, Unregistered Letters Received, series 632, GA Assistant Commissioner, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, & Abandoned Lands, Record Group 105, National Archives; Capt Eugene Pickett to E Yulee Esq., 21 Dec. [186]6, vol. 15, p. 454, Press Copies of Letters Sent, series 625, GA Assistant Commissioner, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, & Abandoned Lands, Record Group 105, National Archives. Prince Bacon and his kin evidently objected to the idea of sending him to Savannah, but the assistant commissioner's headquarters responded that “[t]he freedman Prince cannot be supported by the Government unless he will go to Hospital.” (Capt Eugene Pickett to E. Yulee Esqr, 18 Jan. [1867], vol. 15, p. 580, Press Copies of Letters Sent, series 625, GA Assistant Commissioner, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, & Abandoned Lands, Record Group 105, National Archives.) The communication from Yulee to which that pronouncement was a response has not been found among the letters received by the assistant commissioner.
Published in Land and Labor, 1866–1867, p. 784.