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At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Wood, Matthew (fl. 1862-1865) to Sarah Wood

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02176.26 Author/Creator: Wood, Matthew (fl. 1862-1865) Place Written: Mt. Olive, North Carolina Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 8 April 1865 Pagination: 4 p. ; 20.1 x 25.1 cm. Order a Copy

Written from Mt. Olive, North Carolina to his wife. Describes again the differences in climate between Ohio and North Carolina. Comments on the state of the Confederate cause, saying "Old Lee has got out of Richmond and a going round like a roaring lion seeking how he may save his old treacherous neck," and "I am in good heart about the war ending if Lee did get out forty men will desert him, and another thing they can not feed a concentrated army two weeks any where...They have no artillery of any account so if they come facing Old Bill with Grant in their rear they will soon get their feet into it." Concludes with a small rhyming poem.

Matthew Wood served in the Ohio Ninth Cavalry with Burnside's army in Tennessee, and William T. Sherman's army at the burning of Atlanta and capture of Savannah.

Wood, Matthew, fl. 1861-1865
Wood, Sarah, fl. 1862-1865
Grant, Ulysses S., 1822-1885
Lee, Robert E., 1807-1870
Sherman, William T. (William Tecumseh), 1820-1891

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