Norfolk [Va.] August the 21 1865
This is to certify That Elisabeth Wright Appeared Before me J W Cook Notary and Counsiler Fore The Freedmen In This Department By Permission Of Maj General Miles And Swore to The Fowling Statements and the Said Testimony Was Confermed By Seargant Frank Turner 5th Sergant Co [I] Wich Said Decased Belong to Captain William Brazzee Col John Holman Commading Regiment 18 Armey Core Maj B F Butler commanding Having Stated That Her Husband Was Killed in June 1864 Before Petterburgh Rufus Wright And She The Said Widdow–Elisabeth Wright has Never Received Pay Or Allowances From the Goverment And know Ask to Receive The Pay That May Be Due The Said Rufus Wright Her Husband I have The Honnor To Remain Your Most Obedient Servant
Elisabeth her mark X Wright
Witness his mark Frank X Turner
P.S.The Papers in Testimony I here With Enclose To Be Retured with you Convenience
Affidavit of Elisabeth Wright, 21 Aug. 1865, Letters & Orders Received, series 4180, Norfolk VA Assistant Subassistant Commissioner, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, & Abandoned Lands, Record Group 105, National Archives. Endorsements. The enclosures mentioned in the affidavit are a marriage certificate and two letters from Elisabeth Wright's deceased husband, Private Rufus Wright. He died in the U.S. General Hospital at Ft. Monroe, Virginia, on June 21, 1864, of an abdominal wound received in action at Petersburg on June 15. (Service record of Rufus Wright, 1st USCI, Carded Records, Volunteer Organizations: Civil War, series 519, Record Group 94, Adjutant General's Office, National Archives.)
Published in The Black Military Experience, pp. 663–64, and in Families and Freedom, p. 167.