[MANUSCRIPT LETTER] LETTER FROM THOMAS HUGHES TO HIS SISTER FRANCES, IN RICHMOND. 1813

Halifax Town, N. C., 1813. Folded leaf;, 12 1/4 x 15"; 4 pages; with loss affecting a word where the seal was broken;. there is some separation at a fold; this manuscript letter from Thomas Hughes to his sister in Richmond, Frances T. Hughes, is dated "Halifax Town, N. C., May 14, 1813".~~Thomas Hughes was apparently filling in for the clerk of Halifax County who was laboring under "sever disposition". He describes visiting the encampment of Major Taylor of Salisbury where he noted "the tents all pitched in a regular order, the martial music and the difference [sic] equipage of the officers". ~~ He notes his reading of novels [Winter in London and ELiza Wharton, the American Coquette].~~Of interest, he records the news that the British had burnt Havre de Grace "and committed many other depredations in the State of Maryland".~~We note, from the holdings of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, that Mr. Hughes married several years later.