Viewing page 32 of 134

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Senate Chambers July 20 1868

Major General Howard

Dear Sir:

In addition to signing the general statement of the North Carolina delegation in reference to the condition & application of the citizens of Hyde County, N.C. I beg leave to state that I myself reside & have a plantation in Pasquotank County, which is in the vicinity of Hyde, & that I am personally cognizant of the main facts stated in the Petition of the suffering citizens.  The lands are all low & flat, & easily submerged by heavy rains.  Last year, the crops were almost entirely destroyed by the rains.  In the month of June of this year, the whole section was visited with unprecedented floods of rains, & from the great damage done the growing crops where I reside, I know that the ruin to the crops on the lower land, composing Hyde & a part of Washington County must have been almost complete.  From the destitution existing in my own county, where the damage to the crops, last year & this, must