Rare and original State of Maryland document from the Office of the U.S. Board of Claims, No. 19 South Street, Baltimore, MD. The front of the document is printed and was filled in with handwriting, there is additional writing on the reverse. It appears to be a claim made by a slaveholder for compensation for his former slave that joined the Union Army.  It reads:
[Front] I, Levin Woolford, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Somerset County, aforesaid, hereby certify…that it appears from authenticated muster rolls on file in this office, that Anthony Ward, of Co. C, 30th Reg't U.S.C.T., was listed in the United States Service, from the State of Maryland, prior to the first day of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-four.  Witness my hand and seal of the said Board of Claims, this 3rd day of April, 1865.  Signed John L Sears, Clerk to U.S. Board of Claims. 
[Reverse] I hereby certify that I was the owner of a slave by the name of Anthony Ward, who enlisted in the United States Service about the last of March, 1864, and believe him to be the identical person who is now enrolled as a private in Co. C of the 30th Reg't U.S.C. Troops, J.B. Stevenson, Claimant, of Jacksonville, Somerset Co, Md. We also certify that we were well acquainted with both J.B. Stevenson and Anthony Ward, and had been for five years; and know the latter to have been the slave of the former, and believe the statement of the owner to be true as he hath made it his certificate above. Witnesses J.S. Mason, John T? Lawson, and James K. Rayfield."
This document is in excellent condition and has a 5 cent documentary revenue stamp affixed to the reverse.
[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Abolitionist, Slave, Slavery, Emancipation Proclamation, 13th Amendment, Civil Rights, Abraham Lincoln]