Our Collection

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, Eliza Jones, fl. 1862 to Samuel H. Jones

Order a pdf of this item here.

Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02570.15 Author/Creator: Cook, Eliza Jones, fl. 1862 Place Written: Richmond, Texas Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 26 January 1862 Pagination: 4 p. Order a Copy

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 support for her brother when she writes, "Take care of your self and kill all of the Yankees you can." Mail is as important to the people at home as it is to those in the army. Eliza writes, "Tell Gustave to write to me. I write every week to him, I have not received a letter from him in two weeks but I live in [illegible] of getting one in the morning. You have no idea what a pleasure it is to get letters from you and Gustave…"

Jones, Samuel H., fl. 1862
Cooke, Gustave, fl. 1861-1865

Citation Guidelines for Online Resources