{"id":597,"date":"2013-04-06T09:00:16","date_gmt":"2013-04-06T14:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/library.bowdoin.edu\/arch\/civil-war-blog\/?p=597"},"modified":"2025-05-19T15:31:37","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T15:31:37","slug":"april-6-1863","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sca.bowdoin.edu\/civil-war-blog\/2013\/04\/06\/april-6-1863\/","title":{"rendered":"April 6, 1863"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hd. qrs. 11th Corps<br \/>\nStafford Court House<\/p>\n<p>My dear Mother,<\/p>\n<p>I believe I have not written you a letter since we came to this Corps.<\/p>\n<p>I have just returned from a Review of all the Cavalry of the army by the President. This morning at 9 we started. Otis &amp; all his Divn. Generals with their various staffs. We rode to Gen Hookers Hd. qrs. about 7 miles and these called on the President &#8211; and at 12 we all went out to the Review. It was exceedingly muddy. The day was cloudy &#8211; Saturday night we had a snow storm! And though the snow is almost all gone yet it made it very muddy. The cavalry was draw up in lines a mile long and we had a very tiresome ride in reviewing. The Pres. rode with Gen. Hooker. His little boy rode on a pony by his side. The Generals present rode next &amp; then their staffs &#8211; which made a big battalion. Afterwards, as always in a Review, the Pres. took a station &amp; all the Cavalry &amp; light artillery passed him in platoons or companies. It took a full hour for it all to pass in this manner. We rode to Gen. Hooker\u2019s Hd. Qrs. again &amp; the Generals gave their staffs permission to go home while they went to dine with the Pres. &amp; Gen Hooker. Mrs. Lincoln was at the Review in a covered carriage. Attorney Gen\u2019l. Bates was with her. He is an old man, with hair very grey.<!--more-->We rode back tired &amp; besmeared with mud. I saw Major Whittlesey there tho\u2019 did not get a chance to speak with him. He has been ordered to Gen. Howard &amp; will come over tomorrow. He will not be A. A. G. for the present. Col. Meysenberg has that position and is an excellent officer as well as a very fine young man and agreeable gentleman. He speaks English as well as he does German &amp; French equally well. I am going to tent with a German captain (on the staff) so as to learn to speak the German. The Captain can speak French too &amp; I hope to learn some in that language. The Div\u2019n. generals are very congenial &amp; seem to like Otis. I think he will be popular as he could desire. Gen\u2019l. Carl Shurtz is a fine gentleman &amp; good General and we shall be sorry to lose him. It is thought he will be ordered West. Mr. Stinson &amp; I came with the General from the 2nd Divn. Mr. Gilbreth (son of the superintendent of the Arsenal at Augusta and a nephew of Mr. Farwell), also came. He wishes to remain on the staff but has no commission yet &#8211; and I doubt if he remains.<\/p>\n<p>Otis has got back. Had quite an interview with our Pres. &amp; saw Mrs. Lincoln. No doubt he will be permanently in command of this Corps. Letter from Lizzie came tonight. Have been attending to papers for Otis since I began this letter &amp; am now too sleepy &amp; tired to write a good letter &amp; I do not like to send any other to my dear Mother.<\/p>\n<p>We are quite happy in our new situation &amp; God grant we may have strength &amp; grace to do our whole duty.<\/p>\n<p>Your Affectionate Son,<br \/>\nC.H. Howard<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/archivesspace.bowdoin.edu\/repositories\/2\/archival_objects\/127652\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Charles Henry Howard to his mother, Eliza Gilmore [Charles Henry Howard Collection]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hd. qrs. 11th Corps Stafford Court House My dear Mother, I believe I have not written you a letter since we came to this Corps. I have just returned from a Review of all the Cavalry of the army by the President. This morning at 9 we started. Otis &amp; all his Divn. Generals with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[93,110,182,209,239],"class_list":{"0":"post-597","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-charles-henry-howard-collection","7":"tag-charles-henry-howard","8":"tag-class-of-1859","9":"tag-lincoln","10":"tag-oliver-otis-howard","11":"tag-union","12":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sca.bowdoin.edu\/civil-war-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sca.bowdoin.edu\/civil-war-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sca.bowdoin.edu\/civil-war-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sca.bowdoin.edu\/civil-war-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sca.bowdoin.edu\/civil-war-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sca.bowdoin.edu\/civil-war-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2280,"href":"https:\/\/sca.bowdoin.edu\/civil-war-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions\/2280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sca.bowdoin.edu\/civil-war-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sca.bowdoin.edu\/civil-war-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sca.bowdoin.edu\/civil-war-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}