Alphonso Barto to William Barto, Alphonso Barto Papers

This is a letter from Lieutenant Alphonso Barto at Corinth, Mississippi to his father, William Barto in Illinois, dated July 7, 1863. Barto served in the U.S. Army, a member of the 52nd Illinois Infantry Regiment. He was later promoted to Captain of Company K and served to the end of his enlistment in 1864. In the letter Barto describes how his thinking changed on emancipation during the course of the war. While maintaining a conservative view on race, Barto fully supported the Emancipation Proclamation. (See pages 2-3. For more from the Alphonso Barto Papers, see 1118508 and 1118456. Transcription provided by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum and the White House Historical Association.)