Headquarters 2nd Divn
2nd Corps. Feb. 14. 1863
Near Falmouth Va.
Dearest,
It is getting pretty late and we have had reading and prayers, but I can’t go to bed without telling you that I have thought much of this day 8 years ago, since then how much of experiences in the retrospect. You seem just as young, just as beautiful, and I think a little more so to me now. There is so much freshness in our lives. I would like to lover-like to pay my addresses to you tonight. Never mind the wedding dress, nor the tiny slippers, nor the choir cake. To me it would be a wedding night if I were home even without the bonfire. Goodnight.
Oliver Otis Howard to his wife, Elizabeth Ann Waite [Oliver Otis Howard Papers]