Headquarters Eleventh Corps, Army of the Potomac.
My dear mother:
The day I wrote you from Washington (last Saturday) at half past seven in the evening we reached Catlett’s Station …I found my horses all looking well after their long rest. Yesterday Otis reviewed one of the Brigades and today another. He has just returned from the Review. I have been at home as my presence was not required and have been listening to music both from Piano and melodeon by a Capt of General Schurz’s staff. Monday Otis with manual assistance from me and an occasional help of memory or other suggestion, made out his report of the battle of Gettysburg. I was writing from early in the morning until late in the evening, but finished it all up in one day, 37 pages on paper like this. I am writing in my tent which is shared by Capt. Stinson who is now sitting upon my Cot. Our tent is just in [illeg. word] of the house, north, under the shade of locust trees. Little Lottie Catlett is just in here, a little girl of 5 or 6, prattling and playing. She is quite a roguish little piece. …
Charles Henry Howard to his mother, Eliza Otis Howard [Charles Henry Howard Collection]