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Deposition of Ananias N. Thomas to Southern Claims Commission

  1. In whose favor are you here to testify?

    2. The said Ananias N. Thomas being first duly sworn deposes and says my age is 52 years old. I reside in Blount Couny Alabama and I am a Farmer

    In favor of the claimant.

  2. How long have you known that person altogether, and what part of that time have you intimately known him?

    3. I have known the claimant ever since I could remember and I have been intimate with him for over forty years.

  3. Did you live near him during the war, and how far away?

    4. I lived about five miles from the claimant all the time during the war.

  4. Did you meet him often, and about how often, during the war?

    5. I saw the claimant often during the war. I saw him sometimes two or three times a week and then I will not see him for a week so now I think that I saw him on an average of twice a month all the time during the war.

  5. Did you converse with the claimant about the war, its causes, its progress, and its results? If so, try to remember the more important occasions on which you so conversed, beginning with the first occasion, and state, with respect to each, when it was, where it was, who were present, what caused the conversation, and what the claimant said in substance, if you cannot remember his words.

    6. I conversed with the claimant often about the war its causes and progress and its results. I cannot remember of any special conversations that we held about the war. We talked so often about it that I cannot call to mind any particular conversations that we had. I remember now that he all the time opposed secession and asked his neighbors to vote against secession and he was bitterly opposed to the war and I have often hear him say that the war was wrong on the part of the rebels and that they could not succeed and that he hoped that they would not succeed and that he wanted the rebellion put down by the United States government and the government reestablished that he did not want to live under any government except that of the United States. I feel certain that he was sincere in what he said and that the claimant was a true Union man and in favor of the Union cause. We often conversed in the presence of others but it has been so long that I cannot at this time call to mind who was present. Our conversations were held in our neighborhood at different times and places.

  6. Do you know of anything done by the claimant that showed him to be loyal to the Union cause during the war? If you do, state what he did, when, where, and what was the particular cause or occasion of his doing it? Give the same information about each thing he did that showed him to be loyal.

    7. ********(?) was t***(?) his conversations about the rebellion and the Confederacy.

  7. Do you know of anything said or done by the claimant that was against the Union cause? If so, please state with respect to each thing said or done, what it was, when it was, where it was, and what particular compulsion or influence caused him to say it.

    8. No sir, I do not.

  8. If you have heard of anything said or done by the claimant, either for the Union cause or against it, state from whom you heard it, when you heard it and what you heard.

    9. If the claimant ever said or done anything against the Union cause I never heard of it.

  9. What was the public reputation of the claimant for loyalty or disloyalty to the United States during the war? If you profess to know his public reputation, explain fully how you know it, whom you heard speak of it, and give the names of other persons who were neighbors during the war that could testify to his public reputation.

    10. That of a Union man and loyal to the United States government. The claimant told me that he was Union man and opposed to the war and the Confederacy. I heard Thomas Campbell, Asa Burrell, James Vanderford, John B. Robbins, Thomas B. Robbins, James William Rice, Druy James and other Union men say that the claimant was a Union man and loyal to the United States government. I think Louis W. Robbins, Ephraim A. Robbins, William A. Black, George W. Richards and Hisher(?) Wilson could testify to the claimant's public reputation during the war.

  10. Who were the known and prominent Union people of the neighborhood during the war, and do you know that such persons could testify to the claimant's loyalty?

    11. Asa Burrell, Thomas Compbell, William A. Black, James Drummond, James Vanderford, Ephraim N. Robbins, Thomas B. Robbins, Louis(?) W. Robbins, Jackson B. Robbins, Hisher(?) Wilson, Jasper Wilson and ******(?) Wilson. I think that any of these persons could testify to the claimant's loyalty during the war.

  11. Were you, yourself, an adherent of the Union cause during the war? If so, did the claimant know you to be such, and how did he know it?

    12. I was and the claimant knew that I was. I told him that I was and I confided in him as a Union man. I was not afraid to communicate to him any of my Union sentiments.

  12. Do you know of any threats, molestation's, or injury inflicted upon the claimant, or his family, or his property, on account of his adherence to the Union cause? If so, give all the particulars.

    13. I do not.

  13. Do you know of any act done or language used by the claimant that would have prevented him from establishing his loyalty to the Confederacy? If so, what act or what language?

    14. I think from the fact that the claimant was a strong Union man and said many bad things about the rebellion and the Confederacy to his Union friends and neighbors that he could not have established and maintained his loyalty to the Confederacy if it had been established as a separate government and I feel certain that if the rebels had been success(?) what he said about the Confederacy that he could not have been permitted to have lived here.

  14. Can you state any other facts within your own knowledge in proof of the claimant's loyalty during the war? If so, state all the facts and give all the particulars.

    15. No sir, I cannot.

    I am related to the claimant he is my uncle h(?)**(?) my Fathers own(?) brother. I have no interest in this claimant.

Further this depondent(?) saith not.
Signature
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