Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1015

Rh Robert W. Hughes, judge of the United States court for the eastern district of Virginia, was born June 6, 1821, upon an estate known as Hughes' Creek, in Powhatan county, Va. This plantation, upon the south side of the James river, was established in the closing years of the seventeenth century, by Jesse Hughes and his wife, Huguenot immigrants. Here David, the grandfather of Judge Hughes, was born and passed his life, taking to wife Judith Daniel, a member of a well-known and distinguished Virginia family. Their son, Jesse, the father of Judge Hughes, was educated at William and Mary and Hampden-Sidney colleges, and in addition to managing the plantation engaged in the practice of law. He married a beautiful woman, the belle of her college, known among her affectionate friends as "Pretty Betty Morton," the daughter of Capt. Hezekiah Morton, who was one of the six sons that joined the company of their father, John Morton, which marched from Prince Edward Court House to join the army of George Washington in the North. She and her husband were carried away by a malignant fever, at nearly the same date, when Judge Hughes, the youngest of five children, was but one year old. On being advised of the sad circumstances, Gen. Edward C. Carrington of Halifax county, an intimate college friend of Jesse Hughes, came with his carriage to Hughes' Creek, and prevailed upon Captain Morton to allow him to take Robert to rear and educate. At the home of this generous friend of his father he passed his childhood and youth, and at eighteen years of age was placed in Caldwell college, at Greensboro, N. C. Here only two years had elapsed when General Carrington had the misfortune to lose his property, and young Hughes, thrown upon his own resources, became a tutor at the Bingham classical school at Hillsboro, N. C. After two years of this occupation, during which he also studied law, he went to Richmond and embarked in the profession. During these early years of his practice, from 1846 to 1853, he became intimately associated with the distinguished John M. Daniel, editor of the Richmond Examiner, whom he assisted by editorial contributions during all this period. When Mr. Daniel became minister to Italy by appointment of President Pierce, Judge Hughes succeeded to the editorship, and was in sole charge until November, 1857, when the editorial direction went into the hands of B. M. Dewitt, who was succeeded by William Old, Jr. While editor of the Examiner, Judge Hughes was married June 4, 1850, at the governor's mansion at Richmond, to Miss Eliza M. Johnston, the adopted daughter of Gov. John B. Floyd. She was the niece of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and daughter of Hon. Charles C. Johnston, who was accidentally drowned at Alexandria while a member of the national House of Representatives. Her mother was Eliza Mary Preston, daughter of Gen. John Preston of Botetourt county and cousin of both Governor Floyd and his wife. When Judge Hughes retired from the Examiner it was to accompany Governor Floyd to Washington, the latter having been called to the secretaryship of war by President Buchanan. There, on account of the illness of Mrs. Floyd, Mrs. Hughes performed the gracious duties of hostess, for which nature had eminently endowed her, at the home of the secretary of war, and Judge Hughes became the principal editor of the Washington Union, then the organ of the administration. In the winter of 1859-60, on account of failing