1863 Long Swamp Florida letter by business man and Confederate officer Joshua L. McGahagin. Letter regards Cotton prices and domestic issues

Long Swamp, Florida: n.p., 1863. Letter. Good. Manuscript letter written on blue paper. Approx. 10" x 8". 1 page of content. On the back side is written "J L McGahagin Seller Jany 25th 1863". Hand writing is difficult to read at times. Letter has multiple folds. The paper is in good condition with some small splits at the folds. Transcription below:

Long Swamp Fla Jan 25th 1863
Mr. H. L. Flast
Dear Sir

I received your letter with draft of $1500 on Maj Teasdale which I will not want to use at ? percent - 8? I was disappointed in getting the cotton at or near Wacahoota persons in that section have put is up to 45 cts I have (truncated) about 15 Bales seed Cotton and 12 gined at Home. I will ? tomorrow to haul down more seed cotton which I think I will ? enough to make 20 Bales I went to Gainesville and got the draft of 1900 from Dawkins I will have to pay ? for cotton if I get any more at 'presant' ? I ? ? to pay 'presant' prices - I have not heard from the teacher as yet that you were to ? and we have an application from Miss Baker for a friends of hers and are waiting to hear from you let us hear soon

Yours Respectfully [signed] J L McGahagin

From find a grave dot com:

His first wife Sarah Adeline Eubanks McGahagin (1830-1856) is buried on the north side of him. On his other side is his second wife, Margaret Jane Leitner McGahagin (1838-1896). His brother, William Emmit McGahagin, and his brother’s wife, Sarah Eliza McCormick McGahagin, are buried about fifteen feet south of J.L. McGahagin's tombstone.
Joshua L. McGahagin was a farmer, a saw-mill owner, and owned real estate. He owned property in Brazil as well as in this country. He owned a sawmill on Lake Weir. He would barge logs across the lake, take them by ox cart to the Ocklawaha River where they were barged to Jacksonville. He was a Captain in the Confederate Army.

"Longswamp was the name applied to a large area which extended from the site of the present Belleview south and southwestward to the Withlacoochee River. A post office under Joshua L. McGahagin was established for this region on August 29, 1846. Frequently the office was in the home of the postmaster and mail was carried by rider once each week."

"In August of 1850, panic followed after finding an Indian camp nearby on the Withlacoochee. As all Indians were supposedly within a reservation in the Everglades, wild rumors were circulated. On the McGahagin plantation, log barricades were hurriedly erected and settlers from isolated homes rushed here for protection. But the alarm was unjustified. An intensive search disclosed only eleven Indians. These Indians were soon deported back to the Everglades."

These excerpts were taken from a history of Marion County called "Ocali Country, Kingdom of the Sun," by Eloise Robinson (Mrs. Roy V.) Ott and Louis Hickman Chazal.

One day several years after the Civil War, a man who had served under Joshua Lucas MaGahagin's, C.S.A. command, entered the home of his eldest son, William "Billy" Emmit. He saw his father's framed photograph over the mantel and exclaimed, "Why, that's the Ole Warhorse!"

Joshua left for South America in 1868 taking one of his daughters, Lula, with him. He was back in Marion County in 1870 as he was listed in the Census that year.

After surviving the Civil War and a trip to Brazil, spending hours on horseback, Joshua died when he was thrown from a horse. (Inventory #: 34799)