Browse Items (171 total)

A special order directed to the Confederate engineer Col. Lea instructs him to take "the negroes in his charge" to destroy the railroad between Lavaca and Victoria. Detailed instructions about where to bring th enslaved laborers and how to equip them…

A circular from W. H. Haynes, chief of the Trans-Mississippi Clothing Department, orders that officers must receive approval before buying cloth from the Texas Penitentiary.

Members of the Bosque County court complain to the governor about rising prices for foodstuffs caused by the rates that a local quartermaster is willing to pay to haul corn from 40 or 50 miles away. The court suspects that the quartermaster is…

Weeks writes from Texas about the condition of his crop and his contemplated plans to sell cotton in Mexico. He hopes that Moore will use his influence to secure Weeks an exemption from the impressment of his teams by "representing" to the government…

Leigh reports to his father-in-law about an upcoming trip to visit some refugee friends living in Millican, a railroad depot on the Central in Grimes County. He also describes the corn crop in Texas as one of the best he has ever seen, and is…

Allie Weeks, now married to Thomas Weightman, reports on their concern about high rates of taxes, despite the good crop, and also says that her husband has gone to Jordan's Saline to haul salt. She also complains that Texas people are getting the…

In this dyspeptic letter, Charlie complains about having to support "my negroes in idleness" and also about the fact that "the vile animals runaway," including two whom he later caught and had "pickled."

An account sheet between C. E. Gregory and William F. Weeks shows that five enslaved people owned by Weeks (Judah, Ellen, Ellen Collings, Lucretia, and Spencer) had earned $1840 for Weeks to date, towards which the hirers (George and Davidson?) had…

Moore writes to Weeks about his intention to keep most of his "hand" in Desoto Parish, sending a few back to the Teche to raise a crop if possible there and on the Magill plantation. He is confident that Weeks's "reasoning in relation to the detail…

Moore begins with a lengthy discussion of the accounts of W. F. Weeks & Co., and then shares his plans to go to Shreveport soon to "settle with C. S. officers for the hire & loss of slaves working on the Public Works." While some of the officers he…