ALS, one page, 5 x 8, September 21, 1898. Handwritten letter to Mrs. Margaret Shipp, in full: "I have sufficiently recovered to attempt a letter, tho' still weak, I dictated a letter to you before leaving Cuba while I was sick but it was so poorly taken down that I did not send it. Permit be then, now to tender you in your bereavement my deepest sympathy and condolence. The regiment has sustained as has that Army a loss that cannot be filled—none was held in higher esteem than Mr. Shipp, none who was killed died more bravely or gallantly performing a soldier's duty. You know what we thought of him and his inestimable worth as an officer. Our loss is not comparable however to yours. I think I was the first officer who found his remains, hence I came into possession of the personal articles you value so highly. I hurriedly performed a few sad rites, as we were under a hot fire, left a guard under protection of a hill to watch the remains. Mr. Barnum buried him that night, and plainly marked his grave with a wooden slab. This was afterward replaced by one of zinc, which Maj. Webb Hayes of the 1st Ohio Cavalry and I placed at his head. I thank you for your solicitous inquiry as to my health which I think I have now recovered. I shall deem it a pleasure to assist you in any way in my power either now or at any time in the future. Again offering my heartfelt sympathy." In overall fine condition.
Accompanied by the original mailing envelope, addressed in Pershing's hand; as well as a "Veterans of the Spanish America War" ribbon from the "Wm. M. Shipp Command" in North Carolina, a black-bordered envelope marked "From San Juan Battle Field," containing a dried palm leaf cross; the document commissioning Shipp as a cadet of the United States Military Academy in 1880, signed by Secretary of War Alexander Ramsey and Adjutant General Edward D. Townsend; and two photographs of William E. Shipp in uniform.
At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Lieutenant Shipp's regiment embarked for Cuba. On July 1, 1898, he was killed at the Battle of San Juan Hill, where he was in charge of black troops. Of that day Colonel Theodore Roosevelt remarked: 'It was Shipp who brought me word to advance with my regiment…He had been riding to and fro with absolute coolness and fearlessness, paying no more heed of bullets than if they were hail stones.'
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