Lookout Valley, Tenn.
My Dear boy,
I have just received a letter from Mamma. She says Guy has improved in reading. I am glad to hear this for a poor reader seems like a poor scholar. In this part of the country I have not met a little boy who can read or write. There are no school houses. Hardly any of the grown up people can read. They make their mark. […]
From the high mountain the rebels throw shells down every day with their guns: only one or two have done us any harm. They fire at us in the morning. […]
Lovingly, Papa
Oliver Otis Howard to his son, Jamie [Oliver Otis Howard Papers]