Congratulatory Letter from Colonel Charles A. Wikoff

After more than thirty years of service as both a volunteer and a member of the regular Army, Erasmus Corwin Gilbreath was promoted to Major in the regular Army. Gilbreath received this letter of congratulations from Colonel Charles A. Wikoff while he was stationed at Whipple Barracks, Arizona. Gilbreath had served under Wikoff in Texas and the Dakota Territory.

Both men would later die as a result of their service in the Spanish American War (1898). Colonel Wikoff was the highest ranking officer killed in combat during the war.