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Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research.

Preferred Citation

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [folder], Alfred Hughes Family Papers, 1862, Ms2023-110, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.

Source of Acquisition

The Alfred Hughes Family Papers were purchased by Special Collections and University Archives in August 2018.

Processing Information

The processing, arrangement, and description of the Alfred Hughes Family Papers was completed in February 2025. Initial description was completed in September 2023.

Biographical Note - Alfred Hughes

Alfred Hughes was born to Thomas and Mary von Odenbaugh Hughes on September 16, 1824, in Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia). According to the 1850 census, he was a lumber dealer. Hughes graduated the Homeopathic Medical College of Philadelphia (now part of Drexel University) in 1853 and began practicing homeopathic medicine in Wheeling. His sister Eliza C. Hughes joined his practice in 1860.

During the American Civil War, Hughes was a Confederate sympathizer, who wrote for the Baltimore Exchange. He was arrested on May 30, 1862, and imprisoned at Camp Chase, a Union prison camp in Columbus, Ohio, until his parole in October or November 1862. Hughes moved to Richmond in January 1863 to practice and served in the Virginia Legislature until the end of the war.

Alfred Hughes married Mary Kirby Adrian (1832-1909) on November 1, 1849, and they had 10 children, including Thomas Hughes, Esq. Following the war, the family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, and he set up another homeopathic practice, while also contributing to the American Homoeopathic Observer. He died on February 25, 1880, in Baltimore.

Sources:

U. S. Federal Census, 1850-1870

Hughes, Alfred, An Essay on Consuetudo Medicine (Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania thesis), January 31, 1853, available online from Drexel University on Archive.org, https://archive.org/embed/ducom_hu_theses_1853hughes , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.

History of the Upper Ohio Valley, With Family History And Biographical Sketches, Vol. I (Madison, Wisc.: Brant & Fuller, 1890), pp. 332-335, 580, available online from HathiTrust, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/012288589 , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.

"Dr Alfred Hughes", Findagrave.com, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/126370734/alfred-hughes , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.

"Notice. Alfred Hughes, M. D. Eliza C. Hughes, M. D.", Daily intelligencer (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]), 27 April 1860, p. 2, available online from the Library of Congress's Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026845/1860-04-27/ed-1/seq-2/ , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.

"Sale of Household Furniture.", Daily intelligencer (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]), 05 Jan. 1863, p. 3, available online from the Library of Congress's Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026845/1863-01-05/ed-1/seq-3/ , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.

"Doctor Alfred Hughes" in the U.S., Civil War Prisoner of War Records, 1861-1865, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/search/collections/1124/records/193620 , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.

"Alfred Hughs" in the West Virginia, U.S., Marriages Index, 1785-1971, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/search/collections/2538/records/1311061 , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.

"Alfred Hughes" in the U.S., Civil War Prisoner of War Records, 1861-1865, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/search/collections/1124/records/148712 , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.

"Alfred Hughes" in the U.S., Civil War Prisoner of War Records, 1861-1865, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/search/collections/1124/records/129911 , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.

Biographical Note - Eliza Hughes

Eliza C. Hughes was born to Thomas and Mary von Odenbaugh Hughes in 1817 in Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia). She graduated from the Penn Medical University at Philadelphia in 1860. In April of the same year, she joined her brother Alfred Hughes at his homeopathic medicine practice in Wheeling to focus on obstetrics, women's health, and children's health. She was one of the earliest women to practice homeopathic medicine in Virginia and West Virginia. During the American Civil War, she was briefly arrested for initially refusing to take an oath of allegiance to the Union in August 1862. Hughes set up her own practice in Wheeling in January 1863, after her brother moved out of town. She died in May 1882 in Wheeling.

Sources:

U. S. Federal Census, 1850-1860

History of the Upper Ohio Valley, With Family History And Biographical Sketches, Vol. I (Madison, Wisc.: Brant & Fuller, 1890), pp. 332-335, 581-582, available online from HathiTrust, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/012288589 , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.

"Dr Eliza Clark Hughes", Findagrave.com, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/131670475/eliza_clark_hughes , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.

"Notice. Alfred Hughes, M. D. Eliza C. Hughes, M. D.", Daily intelligencer (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]), 27 April 1860, p. 2, available online from the Library of Congress's Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026845/1860-04-27/ed-1/seq-2/ , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.

"Arrest of a Secession Lady", Daily intelligencer (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]), 18 Aug. 1862, p. 3, available online from the Library of Congress's Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026845/1862-08-18/ed-1/seq-3/ , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.

"Miss Eliza C. Hughes, M. D.", Daily intelligencer (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]), 27 Jan. 1863, p. 2, available online from the Library of Congress's Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026845/1863-01-27/ed-1/seq-2/ , accessed Feb. 17, 2025.

Scope and Content

This collection contains the papers of the family of Alfred Hughes, a doctor, Confederate sympathizer, and political prisoner held at Camp Chase, a Union prison camp in Columbus, Ohio, in 1862 during the American Civil War.

In Hughes's letter to his wife, he provides updates on his parole, expresses the importance of letters from loved ones, and warns his wife that their letters are being examined. (The collection contains a transcription of this letter.) Two letters are from Eliza C. Hughes to Alfred about the health of patients and mentions the family of other prisoners at Camp Chase. One letter expresses her opinions about where he is being held and racist opinions about Black people. There are also 3 envelopes addressed to Hughes in Columbus, Ohio, presumably after being paroled. Most of the envelopes are marked as examined by an official at the prison or addressed to D. B. Tiffany, the prison postmaster.

A pass issued by Ohio Governor, David Tod, grants Alfred Hughes permission to visit Camp Chase after his parole on Nov. 21, 1862. There is also an undated newspaper clipping about an order made on November 22, 1862 by U.S. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to release people imprisoned for discouraging enlistment or opposing the draft in the Union.

Related Material

See the following related collections:

Mary Hughes Letter, Ms2023-111, also at Virginia Tech Special Collections and University Archives

Letters to Thomas Hughes, 1871-1875, Accession #10949, which contain letters from his father Alfred Hughes, at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville

Collection of Alfred Hughes, Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02166 at the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in New York City

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Civil War
• United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
• United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Prisoners and prisons

Rights Statement for Archival Description

The guide to the Alfred Hughes Family Papers by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 ( https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/ ).