Biography/History:

Andrew Thomas Laughlin, the oldest son of Alexander and Martha Laughlin, was born in South Carolina in October of 1828. Laughlin, his parents, and his younger brother, Robert W. Laughlin, moved to Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, between 1830 and 1840. The Alexander Laughlin family, also including children Alexander, Benjamin M., William H., Joseph M., Betsy, Margaret R., and Martha, engaged in farming in Tallahatchie County after 1840. Andrew Thomas Laughlin married Harriet Elizabeth Jones, also of Tallahatchie County, on February 19, 1856. He joined Company B of the Twenty-ninth Regiment, Mississippi Infantry, at Grenada, Grenada County, Mississippi, at the rank of private on April 25, 1862. In May of that year, Laughlin fell ill and was sent to a military hospital in Enterprise, Clarke County, Mississippi in July of 1862. In early November of 1862, he was ordered to rejoin his unit in Knoxville, Tennessee. Laughlin died of pneumonia in a military hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on November 14, 1862.

Harriet Elizabeth Jones Laughlin, daughter of Joshua and Susan Jones, was born in North Carolina on November 6, 1832. Harriet Jones, her parents, and sisters Martha A. and Mary A. Laughlin moved to Tallahatchie County about 1835. She helped her parents with the family farm and the care of two younger siblings, sister Rebecca and brother Gundolphus, between 1835 and 1856. Harriet Jones married Andrew Laughlin in February of 1856. The couple established their own home in Tallahatchie County, where they farmed and raised four children, Susan E., Martha E., Mary D., and Andrew Thomas Laughlin, Jr., until Laughlin enlisted in the Confederate army in April of 1862. Harriet Laughlin continued to live and farm in Tallahatchie County after her husband’s death in November of 1862. She began living with her daughter, Martha E. (Mattie), around 1911. Harriet Laughlin died of complications from a fractured femur at the age of ninety-one on September 13, 1924.

This collection primarily consists of correspondence from Andrew Thomas Laughlin to his wife, Harriet Elizabeth Laughlin, during 1862. Topics of these letters include news of family and friends, as well as brief discussions of military life. In the letters, Andrew Laughlin mentions several names of fellow members of Company B, Twenty-ninth Regiment, Mississippi Infantry, and he discusses daily life, both in military hospitals and in camp. Also in the collection are some of Harriet Laughlin’s responses to her husband’s letters in which she informs him of news at home, including the health of their children and other family members and the state of the family farm. The letters written to Andrew and Harriet Laughlin from other family members relate news of relatives for both sides of the family in Mississippi and Harriet Laughlin’s family in North Carolina. Two letters written to Andrew Laughlin, one from his brother, William, and the other from his sister-in-law, Martha, relate news from home. Included are two letters concerning the death of Andrew Laughlin. One letter is from Private Allen Neely of Company B informing Harriet Laughlin of her husband’s death. The other letter is from Sergeant W. A. McDaniel of Company B to Joshua Jones, Harriet Laughlin’s father, offering sympathy at the loss of his son-in-law.

1. Correspondence (Andrew Thomas and Harriet Elizabeth Jones Laughlin). 1862. 1 folder.
2. Correspondence (Laughlin family). 1862-1883 (scattered). 1 folder.
3. Correspondence (death of Andrew Thomas Laughlin). 1862. 1 folder.