Sentence:  On December 9 , 1862 , Sergeant Edwin H. Fay , an unusual Louisianan who held A. B. and M. A. <WSD>degrees</WSD> from Harvard University and who before the war was headmaster of a private school for boys in Louisiana , wrote his wife : 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  an award conferred by a college or university signifying that the recipient has satisfactorily completed a course of study