means of communication may have been primitive, as compared to current standards,

accounts of Civil War casualties involving close friends, relatives, and
loved ones became an 
excruciating experience however tardy was the report. Daily reports concerning
the 
progress of the Civil War were received in Platteville via telegraph. 
On March 13, 1907, the Platteville Journal published a letter that J. L.
Pickard (1824- 
1914) had "recently" sent to his long-time friend, J. H. Evans
(1830-1919). Unfortunately, 
the Platteville Journal re-print did not provide a date of Pickard's letter
to Evans. But since 
Evans describes this letter as having been "recently received",
the year of its date can be 
assumed as having been 1907. 
J. H. Evans attended the Platteville Academy in 1852-53, and the 1854-55
Annual 
Catalog listed him as a teacher of Drawing and Crayon. Evans became a resident
of 
Platteville and engaged in Platteville's mercantile business. He served on
the Board of 
Regents of Normal Schools from 1872-92 and as the President of the Board
for 12 years. 
Surely, Pickard was especially proud of Evans' services on the Board of Regents
of Normal 
Schools. During the Civil War, Evans served with the Tennessee Volunteers
as a sutler--a 
person who followed the army and sold provisions. 
When Pickard wrote to Evans in 1907, Pickard was 83 years of age and 47 years
had 
lapsed since he left the Academy. During this prolonged absence from Platteville,
Pickard 
had assumed prestigious and formidable educational responsibilities, but
his 1907 letter 
indicated he retained a vivid memory and expressed much concern for his former
students 
at the Platteville Academy. 
Evans' preface in the re-print of Pickard's letter provided the following
additional 
information concerning Pickard's resignation as Principal of the Academy
upon the 
Trustees' denial of admission to the Academy of a "girl with a slight
strain of negro blood": 
As I remember the incident Judge C. K. Lord of LaCrosse wrote to Mr. Pickard
asking 
if he would admit a bright scholarly colored girl (mulatto) as a student
in the 
Academy, he vouching for the character and deportment of the girl. Mr. Pickard
saw 
no reason why such a pupil could not be enrolled. The girl came and was admitted.

Immediately a protest was filed with the Trustees. Of the five Trustees a
bare majority 
of one voted that the girl should go, in other words, be barred from the
privileges of 
the school. Mr. Pickard at once sent in his resignation. This caused a great

commotion in the school and in the village. The Trustees hastily called a
special 
meeting and rescinded their order of expulsion and voted a resolution of
confidence in 
Prof. Pickard and at the same time urging him to recall his resignation.
However the 
colored student, who appeared to be a girl of refinement and good sense,
concluded to 
quit school at once, saying she would not in any way be a factor in disturbing
the 
harmony of the school. 
In his 1907 letter Pickard stated that his records contained the names of
22 Academy 
students (21 soldiers and one nurse), who had served on the Union side of
the Civil War 
and "who had made the sacrifice of life while in their country's service
during the trying 
days of 1861-1865".