an excellent letter in which mr. golding gives Washington an account of conditions at the estate: 'I take my pen for the purpose giving you a statement as made by Mr. Summer (?) and which I have written in my [?] book. He say all the Negroes left behind are gone. They left the ploughs and horses in the field, and went to Alexandria, and are reported to being joined in the Federal Army, which I take to be true.' He goes on to say how they had taken everything that wasn't nailed down, 'butchered all the chickens. Gabe and his wife and girl are the only blacks left.' He paints a bleak picture of people displaced and in a state of general confusion.' We could not identify Thomas Golding, but suppose he might have been a neighbor.
