Carson was illiterate (he could not read or write). He was embarrassed by this, and tried to hide it. He was impressed by gentlemen who could read and write however. In 1856, he told his life story to an Army officer who wrote it down. Carson told the officer that he left school at an early age: "I was a young boy in the school house when the cry came, Injuns! I jumped to my rifle and threw down my spelling book, and thar it lies."