Humphrey Hood to Matilda Hood, Humphrey Hood Papers

This is a letter from First Assistant Surgeon Humphrey Hood at Fort Pickering, Memphis, to his wife, Matilda Hood, at Litchfield, Illinois, dated January 17, 1863. At the time Hood served in the U.S. Army, a member of the 117th Illinois Infantry Regiment. He later became Senior Surgeon of the Third U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery and Surgeon-in-Chief on the staff of General John E. Smith, District of the West. The letter highlights Hood's feelings about the Emancipation Proclamation. He indicates that if the North would stand united with the President's war policy, including emancipation, then the war would end faster. (See middle of page one. For more from the Humphrey Hood Papers please see 1118516 and 1118452. Transcription provided by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum and the White House Historical Association.)