To Thomas Jefferson from Abraham Buford, 20 March 1781
From Abraham Buford
March the 20th 1781
Sir
I am informed from good authority that Epafroditus Rudder, Cornett in Baylors Regiment of horse, did impress the stud Horse of David Deardins (of Mecklenburg County) Cal’d Romulous which was apprais’d to £750 Specie, that horse he has since swoped with Col. George Gibson for a gelden and gets Two Hogsheads of tobacco to boot.
A Buford
I am informed the within by Cornett Rudder, Frances Ruffin of Mecklenburg County and by Col. Gibson.
A Buford
RC (Vi); endorsed: “Colo. Bufords information.”
See White to TJ, Apr. 5. There was a horse named Romulus, by Mark Anthony out of Pompadour, that belonged to John Tyler in 1776, but that Romulus may not have been the one involved in this impressment; , 1st. ser., xi (1902), 93. Cornett Rudder: It does not seem likely that the name Epaphroditus Rudder could be confused with another, but the reference to his being a cornet is puzzling. There was an Epaphroditus Rudder who was second lieutenant in the 1st Virginia State regiment in 1777; first lieutenant from April 1778 to October 1779 in the same regiment; and lieutenant in the 1st Continental Dragoons, 1780 ( , ii, 421, note). If this was the same Rudder referred to in the present letter, it is difficult to account for his being a cornet, except on the ground of his having been broken—a plausible assumption in view of the nature of the matter discussed in the present letter and in Davies’ reply, 21 Mch.; see also TJ to White, 24 Mch. and Greene to TJ, 30 Apr. 1781.