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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.

Cook, Gustave (1835-1897) to Eliza Cook

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02570.39 Author/Creator: Cook, Gustave (1835-1897) Place Written: Near Louisburg, [Tennesee?] Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 17 February 1863 Pagination: 6 p. Order a Copy

Discusses the incredibly cold weather and has frostbite on both feet and one finger. Mentions a paralysis (seizure?) in his arms, spine and "brain which left me senseless and speechless for about 24 hours. They all thought you'd be a young widow…" Lists all the letters he finally received from as far back as December. He is interested in what the family does for fun while he is gone and hopes they do not sit around sulking. He is glad his wife's finger is healed so she can pick up in writing letters. He writes, "My dearest wife it is one of the greatest pleasures and most easily acquired arts imaginable, this of letterwriting, and I desire our babies instructed early and perseveringly in it." Tells his wife to keep her spirits up and to be strong. Mentions that the night she had dinner with Mr. Martin, he was "at the head of my regiment on the battlefield of Murfreesboro linking it into the Yankee cavalry. Suppose you had known it why you would have made a baby of yourself no doubt and been scared to death all but now couldn't you! Oh you baby you!"

Born in Alabama on July 3, 1835, Cook moved to Texas alone at the age of 15 and studied law independently. Cook enlisted as a private in 8th Texas Cavalry, "Terry's Texas Rangers," in 1861 and was promoted to colonel by July 1863. After the war he became a circuit court judge for Galveston, served in the Texas state legislature and led an unsuccessful campaign for governor in 1890. He died in 1897 of complications from a wound suffered during his military service.

Cooke, Gustave, fl. 1861-1865

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