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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.

Pickett, George Edward, 1825-1875 to LaSalle Corbett Pickett

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC09155 Author/Creator: Pickett, George Edward, 1825-1875 Place Written: s.l. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 4 July 1864 Pagination: 4 p. : Height: 25.2 cm, Width: 20.3 cm Order a Copy

To "Sallie." "Does not your husband wish, pray and sigh to be with his Sallie, his only only love...You know...how much I detest outward show, and manifestations of religion...but to offer up you silent prayer with a truthful heart, and an entrusting spirit to our God to make us better, ...that I think is the true way. Thank God my wife I have tried, to follow the example which you have set me. No night do I close my eyes without a prayer to our Father enlisting him to preserve us both through our troubles, and to permit us hereafter to becomes better, no I should say good - for I have done so many wicked things...when I lived without hope...how changed my feelings...Tho' your husband cannot come to see you,...you know his anxiety greater for you than all his other anxieties and God knows they are sometimes great - greater than he could tell for his sake...we have just taken a 'fourth of july' to your sweet self while the Enemy fired their usual salute at 12m[idnight]. the national salute to day they fired with solid shot..."

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