This 1908 dated letter is written on the reverse of a postcard addressed to “Gen. Mickle / Confederate Memorial Ass’n. / Hibernia Bank Building / New Orleans La.”  Postmarked July 31, 1908 in North Carolina and again on Aug. 3, 1908 in New Orleans.  A portion of the address is crossed off in pencil, with “Mobile, Ala.” written in. There is a pre-printed one cent stamp on the postcard, which has cancellation lines through it.  The text written by Alexander is as follows:

Flat Rock No Ca

July 29^th ‘08

Dear General. When in New Orleans last June Mr. Beer of Howard Library told me that you could send me, for a dollar, a book which contained a life of Gen Van Dorn, tho under some other name. It was written, I believe, by a relative of his. I gave him the dollar at once, & he promised to have the book sent you very soon. But it has never reached me nor any message about it. I of course want it very much. Can you tell me any thing about it especially who has it now? The book, not the dollar.  An answer will greatly oblige.  Yours Sincerely E P Alexander”.

Edward Porter Alexander (May 26, 1835 – April 28, 1910) was a military engineer, railroad executive, planter, and author. He served first as an officer in the United States Army and later, during the American Civil War (1861–1865), in the Confederate Army, rising to the rank of brigadier general.

Alexander was the officer in charge of the massive artillery bombardment preceding Pickett's Charge, on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, and is also noted for his early use of signals and observation balloons during combat. After the Civil War, he taught mathematics at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, spent time in Nicaragua, and wrote extensive memoirs and analyses of the war, which have received much praise for their insight and objectivity. His Military Memoirs of a Confederate were published in 1907. An extensive personal account of his military training and his participation in the Civil War was rediscovered long after his death and published in 1989 as Fighting for the Confederacy.

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