Wilson Cary Nicholas to [ ? ], draft fragment, discusses the recommendation of a member of the Council that General [John Hartwell] Cocke's Brigade be discharged due to the danger of epidemic disease spreading and the improbability of the enemy making an attack at this season of the year. However, Nicholas has received the report of Cocke about the condition of his men with no deaths in the last twelve days, and he has decided not to discharge that brigade. The conditions at Charles City Courthouse were severe enough that he has decided to discharge those troops because of a "dangerous and unknown fever." He has received reports that the British forces at St. Mary's are estimated between 1,000 to 3,000 men and that they have reports that between 8,000 to 10, 000 British troops have disembarked at New Orleans, and believes that Virginia cannot afford to diminish its defense forces.