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Augusta County: John B. Baldwin to John H. McCue, April 30, 1859

Summary:
John B. Baldwin updates John H. McCue as to the condition of Stuart after a steamboat accident in Memphis. Baldwin also thanks McCue for his support in the recent election.

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John H. McCue Esq.

Ap 30/59

Staunton

My Dear John

Your two letters came in my absence from home & since my return I have been so disturbed by this calamity which has befallen Stuart that I have had no thoughts of anything else.

You have no doubt seen from the papers that Baldwin Stuart is dreadfully if not fatally injured by the Steamboat explosion near Memphis He lives there now & his mother & father have by this time reached him. Our accounts of his condition are very meagre but they are

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such as to excite the worst apprehensions, of hideous disfigurement or of death.

I need hardly assure you how sincerely gratifying it has been to me to hear of your friendly & active efforts in my behalf in the late election. A few more such friends would have changed the result.

It would seem absurd to say that I feel no disappointment or annoyance at my defeat & yet I assure you I am astonished to find how little it affects me. The truth is I ran for the office at the suggestion of my vanity rather than of my

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judgment, & vanity having been knocked on the head judgment is getting up once more.

The official count makes Robertson's majority 512

Remember me cordially to Whitehead & believe me to be

Your friend

John B. Baldwin