WEST POINT, February 5, 1860.
MY DEAR SISTER: . . . I have just been discussing with my room-mate our prospects as army officers. My life really begins with the date of my commission. What will time disclose? I may meet with success, and I may have been educated but too become the mark of a “red-skin.” Our profession differs from all others. It is a profession of fate and a fatal profession. A long war would make many of us, and prove the grave of as many; but you know it matters not how we meet death, provided we are prepared for it. We must leave all to the dispensation of an all-wise Providence.
SOURCE: Peter Smith Michie, The Life and Letters of Emory Upton, p. 21-2
