25 December 1861

Cook, Gustave, 1835-1897

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Eliza Cook

Recounts a battle where Cook's regiment lost 5 soldiers, including their commander. Describes the bullets whistling by his head. Has sent money home and promises to send more once he is promoted. News about local Fort Bend boys in camp.

GLC02570.11

12 January 1862

Cook, Gustave, 1835-1897

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Eliza Cook

Discusses money matters. Raves about the "good coffee we have here." The coffee is so good, Cook has promised to send "forty or fifty pounds (by the first chance) of coffee. You must let Lou and Susan have some if I send it." Concerned over the health of his children. Includes camp news. Written at Camp Frank Terry.

GLC02570.12

19 January 1862

Cook, Gustave, 1835-1897

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Eliza Cook

Short note jotted down at daybreak. Writes that he is enclosing a letter. Says he has rheumatism in his arms "which is not very troublesome."Written at Camp Johnson.

GLC02570.13

25 January 1862

Cook, Gustave, 1835-1897

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Eliza Cook

Takes offense at the charge (by Susan, his wife's sister?) that he doesn't write as often as he could. Defends himself by saying he is very busy and does not have an abundance of materials with which to write, unlike the people at home who can write, but don't. Complains that he has received "less than 6 letters" since he left home (probably September 1861) but he writes once a week. He writes, "There is something wrong in the mails, not in the correspondents." Puts Eliza's mind at ease over whether Cook loved her. He writes, "You have sometimes laughingly intimated that I did not love…

GLC02570.14

26 January 1862

Cook, Eliza Jones, fl. 1862

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Samuel H. Jones

Eliza writes the original letter to her brother, but it is returned to her from Gustave with corrections over each misspelled word and includes a list of Eliza's spellings versus the correct spellings. He also critiques her writing style and penmanship. Eliza reports local news. Discusses the high cost of food. Writes that she has become "very industrious, I can knit." She continues, "The next time I have a chance I will send you something, you know if our darling mother was living she would send you something every chance and I want to do what I know she would have done." Eliza shows…

GLC02570.15

3 February 1862

Cook, Gustave, 1835-1897

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Eliza Cook

Has written a letter to Mr. Earnest and wants Eliza to read it. In this letter he has recounted the terrible weather. He is very glad that Eliza is writing him letters and takes "great pleasure in correcting any spelling errors you may make so far as I am capable." Discusses how there are certain words with three meanings (No, Know and Now). Reminds her to work on her penmanship. Written at Camp Hardee.

GLC02570.16

11 February 1862

Cook, Gustave, 1835-1897

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Eliza Cook

Discusses Eliza's letter to Sam Jones (GLC02570, #15) that he returns with this letter. Compliments her letter writing and encourages her progress in this "art which you so much desire." Reply's to Eliza's claim that she writes every week with "I do not get a letter from you once a month. I have many complaints about the matter, every one who writes letters to Richmond (Texas) or whose letters are mailed there complain that they never go or get through. We do not know what to think of it." Misses his wife because "There is no one here, like you darling, to rub my head when it aches or…

GLC02570.17

24 February 1862

Cook, Gustave, 1835-1897

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Eliza Cook

Short update quelling the rumors that his company was cut off from the army. Fears that the south has lost Kentucky and Tennessee. Has received family and friends' letters and will write back when he gets the chance.

GLC02570.18

25 February 1862

Cook, Gustave, 1835-1897

Autograph letter

Title: to Eliza Cook

Cook's cousin is visiting. Wonders if the girls received his last letter. Reports that there are a handful of soldiers that are so ill they were left behind with a civilian. Parts of letter are missing. Written in a camp near Mursfreesboro, Tennessee.

GLC02570.19

12 March 1862

Cook, Gustave, 1835-1897

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Eliza Cook

Writes that he has been sicker than he has ever been in his life. Mostly camp news and general interest news. Cook hopes to visit and writes, "Will you be ready for me? Are you still the great fat girl you were writing to me about two or three months ago? You had better be or I shall begin to think you fatten on my absence. I will happen in on you all some day when you are at dinner and not looking for me. Would it not be pleasant for me to peep in at the dining room door on you when you were thinking me far away? Laugh at the idea now as you will but you see if I don't slip in on you…

GLC02570.20

16 March 1862

Cook, Gustave, 1835-1897

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Eliza Cook

Cook wants Eliza to come visit him in Alabama. He thinks that even though it is expensive ($200 each way), it will be worth it if the war lasts much longer. He thinks that the war will be over before the year is through and plans to see Eliza in May. He writes, "It is honorable to serve one's country and yet you have almost made me homesick by asking me to come to you. There my heart is and there I would be but for stern [imperative?] duty. I am true and faithful to you in all aspects and let the war last as long as it may as I shall continue." Cook continues with apologies for taking…

GLC02570.21

16 March 1862

Cook, Gustave, 1835-1897

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Eliza Cook

Short note reporting Cook's chronic dysentery. Feels compelled to come home to visit but has an obligation to the army and "if a battle is fought here I must see it or I can never be satisfied."

GLC02570.22

22 March 1862

Cook, Gustave, 1835-1897

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Eliza Cook

Has received Eliza's letter and even though it was over a month old, "your hand had traced it and your thoughts were on it so I kissed it and read it over and over." Cook reports that he received letters from his father and his aunt, but nothing from his sisters. Apologizes for having nothing exciting to write since he does so frequently. He wonders why Mrs. Lamar has not written him back and attributes it to the fact that he may have written a letter that was "out of taste." Asks Eliza to tell Mrs. Lamar that if his writing was offensive it is only because he is ignorant of such matters…

GLC02570.23

20 July 1862

Cook, Gustave, 1835-1897

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Eliza Cook

Short note about camp news. Includes lines about how when the war is over, Eliza and Gustave will come into their own and will be in "the heyday of our life." Reminds her to stay pretty because "…when I do return…then you can make me do as you please. You know how easily I am controlled by a pretty face and I think yours is quite so if you are 30 (almost)." Requests a letter from daughter Ida.

GLC02570.24

24 July 1862

Cook, Gustave, 1835-1897

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Eliza Cook

Gustave writes this letter by candlelight which he says "shoots up as I begin a word and dies out before I record the first syllable." Includes camp news. Writes that he may stop by his father's house and check on his brothers' well being.

GLC02570.25

30 July 1862

Cook, Gustave, 1835-1897

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Eliza Cook

Includes camp news. Cook promises to write friends and family once he has the chance. Wants Eliza to visit a good dentist "to plug any decayed teeth you have and file apart the two front ones…Pretty teeth you know are a great attraction and by having yours worked on a little they will be beautiful. Do it for my sake now darling and I expect to hear soon that you have done as I desire. Be sure to have the two front ones separated for they are decaying and need to be plugged badly. I shall send you plenty of money…" Is concerned about his two brothers. He writes, "I have not…

GLC02570.26

13 August 1862

Cook, Gustave, 1835-1897

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Eliza Cook

Cook went to visit family and "I found the whole country in mourning for relations and friends killed at the battles of Seven Pines and Richmond." Includes news about Girard and adds that Walter has been very sick but is improving slowly. He includes a story about Cornelius Sadler who was wounded at Shiloh, began recovering, and fell ill again with a pain in his side. "Dr. Burney of Montgomery examined the locality of the wound and opened a place from which he took a fragment of a shell weighing three and a half ounces. It was under the ribs." He includes new directions for sending him…

GLC02570.27

17 August 1862

Cook, Gustave, 1835-1897

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Eliza Cook

Cook recounts his visits with his sister Ginny, "When I went to see her and the servant told her who it was in the parlor the nervous little woman came running with arms outstretched and tears streaming from her eyes. She threw herself upon my breast and sobbed as though her heart would break saying whenever she could speak, 'oh, my brother I am so glad you are alive' 'I thought you might be dead' etc, etc. She held me around the neck for fifteen minutes looking up at me every few moments to see if it was really brother Gustave and then hiding her little face to weep for very joy."…

GLC02570.28

22 August 1862

Cook, Gustave, 1835-1897

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Eliza Cook

Cook discusses camp news. He says he doesn't know where to tell her to write but has decided that sending mail by way of the private citizen is "not a good plan."

GLC02570.29

27 October 1862

Cook, Gustave, 1835-1897

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Eliza Cook

Discusses camp news and recent campaigns. Includes a graphic description of the aftermath of the battle of Perryville: "Such slaughter I never dreamed of. Any where on the field you could stand still and count from one to two hundred dead men in a hundred yards. Everywhere they lay in great heaps and whole lines lay dead side by side as they stood in line of battle. We slept on the field and no where could one lie down without almost touching the mangled corpses of the dead invaders." Discusses money matters, "Take nothing from the county." Asks Eliza to pay back whatever she has…

GLC02570.30

1 November 1862

Cook, Gustave, 1835-1897

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Eliza Cook

Discusses camp news. Complains about his charges; he thinks "they need too much waiting on and watching, they are not manly enough." Asks Eliza what she and the children do for fun and asks "Do you ever talk about me and wonder where I am and what I am doing?" Wishes she was at home in their house rather than staying elsewhere.

GLC02570.31

7 November 1862

Cook, Gustave, 1835-1897

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Polly, Nettie and Peggy Cook

A short note just for the little girls so they "see that he does not forget his babies." Tells them to say their prayers, to study, be good and take care of their mother. Writes that he has a small white tent all to himself and say, "Would you not like very mush to have my little tent for a playhouse? Oh! I know you would and when the war ends I may bring you a little one if I can get it."

GLC02570.32

9 November 1862

Cook, Gustave, 1835-1897

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Eliza Cook

Camp news and possible rumors of a possible promotion. Says he bought a young mare and a large horse and regrets the purchase of the horse because he could have sent her the money. He will send money for Christmas dinner.

GLC02570.33

9 November 1862

Cook, Gustave, 1835-1897

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Ida Cook

Remands her for not writing after she promised to. Send his love to the family. Makes a deal with Ida: if she writes him a long neat letter he will tell her "how I live and all about the war and also send you a twenty dollar bill in it."

GLC02570.34

23 November 1862

Cook, Gustave, 1835-1897

Autograph letter signed

Title: to Eliza Cook

Says he has just received all the letters Eliza has written him since he left. Says he just bought another mare for $300 "which I wish now I had to send you."

GLC02570.35