Sentence:  On December 9 , 1862 , Sergeant Edwin H. Fay , an unusual Louisianan who held A. B. and M. A. degrees from Harvard University and who before the <WSD>war</WSD> was headmaster of a private school for boys in Louisiana , wrote his wife : 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  a legal state created by a declaration of war and ended by official declaration during which the international rules of war apply