News from "Retirement," with much on the local political climate. Hough writes of the secession conventions in Louisiana and Mississippi, saying that "before this letter reaches you I shall be residing in a foreign county." He also speaks of the militarization of the South: "It may be that it will be a peaceful revolution, but it will be an anomaly if it is & I expect nothing else than a civil war yet. The South are not idle but are forming military companies & arming them in the best style regardless of cost."