Bazin, Father Louis, Augusta, Georgia, to Archbishop John Mary Odin, C.M., New Orleans, Louisiana, 1868 January 15

He hastens to answer Odin's inquiry regarding Doctor Pétard . He has lived in Augusta for two or three years. He remained there after the passage of the army of General William T. Sherman in which he was a surgeon. He has ministered chiefly to Negroes, and has a little pharmacy which does not do much business because people consider him a Northerner and particularly detest his service in Sherman's army. Bazin cannot say much of his morals except that he presently holds no religious belief and rarely sets foot within a Catholic Church. Some consider him a "big rascal" since he has unpaid debts which he apparently has no intention of paying. Lately, he buried a small child. Bazin believes his family in France is respectable. One of his sisters Sister Marie Séraphine Pétard, V.S.M. is in a convent at Paris. Another is married and the oldest wished to enter the convent but at the Doctor's departure for America, she took charge of the children of the first marriage. The Doctor's wife comes to church from time to time, but she says she does not understand what is going on. She does not speak English well, and wishes to return to France. She says that she has a brother who is a priest. This is all the information which Bazin has been able to gather. :: VI-2-n A.L.S. French 3pp. 12mo.