We were pulling every possible wire to get permission to go to Fortress Monroe, and Mother was aiding us. General Franklin lent a hand too, but all failed. General Franklin to Brigadier General Thomas. Headquarters 1st Division, 1st Corps, Army of the Potomac. My dear General: Mrs. Howland, the wife of Colonel Howland, of the New [...]

Charles William Woolsey to Georgeanna Muirson Woolsey. New York, April, 62. Dear Georgy: Your letter to me came this morning about the facilities for (or rather the hindrances to) getting from Baltimore to Fortress Monroe. . . . Cousin William A. tells me all authority on General Dix’s part to grant passes to anyone has [...]

Mother to Georgeanna and Eliza in Alexandria. Ebbitt House,…………………. Monday Evening, April 15 or 16, 62. Dear Girls: We have just had a call and salute from Joe’s manservant James, who wished to know if we had any “word for Mrs. Howland in the morning.” What with your three devoted “Mercuries” we seem to keep [...]

Georgeanna’s Journal. Alexandria, April 15, ‘62. Saturday morning we had private information that Franklin’s Division was shipping down the river, and we packed our bags at once and with Mrs. Franklin came down to the Dysons’ Cottage, Alexandria. . . . Dyson’s two slaves, Harriet and her mother, have run away, for which I sing [...]

Since the sailing of the great expedition from Annapolis, Francis Bacon had been on active duty with the troops on the coast of South Carolina and Georgia, and at the reduction of the two forts at Port Royal, and of Fort Pulaski, April 11th. At the siege of the latter he was on duty with [...]

William Winthrop to Georgeanna. Berdan’s Sharpshooters,……………….. Camp before Yorktown, April 11, 1862. Dear Cousin: Your welcome and full letter brought joy and facts. . As for us, we are sitting down before Yorktown, as yet untaken. The enemy retreated before us, first from Great Bethel, then from the extensive entrenchments at Smithville, two miles beyond. [...]

Sarah Woolsey to Georgeanna. New Haven, April. I spent one delightful day in New York with Jane at the New England rooms, where everything is nicely prepared for 300 men. The superintendent has time during intervals to rush down stairs and compose puffs on Jane, which he publishes in the newspapers next morning! The day [...]

Eliza’s lovely home at Fishkill was all this time shut up and desolate, but the grounds were in the hands of their neighbor, Mr. Henry W. Sargent, who kindly undertook the work Joe had to give up for the war. He planted the place, selecting trees and superintending the work day after day. The little [...]

Jane Stuart Woolsey to Mother in Washington. Thursday Evening. Dear Mother: Your letter, or rather Georgeanna’s, Eliza’s check, etc., arrived this morning, with the important item inscribed, as usual, on the flap and disfigured in opening. We are very sorry to hear that Hatty doesn’t get on faster. Perhaps if, instead of a “good old [...]

Abby Howland Woolsey to Georgeanna. New York, April, ‘62. I notice what you say of bed sacks. The Sanitary Commission furnished thousands to the Burnside Division for its hospitals at Roanoke. Charley says not one of these was ever filled or used, there not being a wisp of hay or straw or moss or anything, [...]

Eliza’s journal. April 7.   A note from Joe tells of the regiment’s safe arrival at Manassas, where they are camped. The General had complimented J. on moving his regiment better than any of the others.

Chaplain Hopkins to Eliza. Alexandria Hospital, April 5th. My Dear Mrs. Howland: Yesterday was one of the brightest, pleasantest days I have known for a long time. The wards were more inviting, and the men more cordial than usual. All day I seemed to be in the right place at the right time, and by [...]

Georgeanna and Eliza had “enlisted for the war,” which they did not understand to mean staying comfortably housed in Washington, while the army marched to danger and death. So when the orders came for the advance of the Army of the Potomac, they definitely determined to go too, in some way or other, and not [...]

Eliza’s journal. Headquarters of the 16th Regiment, In the field, April 3. We were on the point of driving out here yesterday when a telegram came from Joe saying he was coming in. It was with his camp wagon this time, to carry out various things–new guide colors for the regiment, stationery, etc., and his [...]

Mary had written a number of verses for the soldiers, and they had been printed as leaflets, each one floated over by the flag in red and blue, and distributed widely among the enlisted men. The first of these was A Rainy Day in Camp. . It’s a cheerless, lonesome evening, When the soaking, sodden [...]

Eliza Woolsey Howland to Chaplain Hopkins. Washington, D. C., April 1st, 1862. Dear Mr. Hopkins: I send some Independents with the “Rainy day” in them. We mentioned that you liked the verses, and Abby sent these on for you to distribute among your patients. We spent last Sunday near Alexandria . . . glad to [...]

From Mother’s Journal. Saturday, March 29. To camp again. Snow-storm. Stayed at Mrs. Bright’s cottage Saturday night and drove up to camp on Sunday. Service in hospital tent, Dr. Miller, of the 16th, and Dr. Adams, of the 5th Maine, officiating. Communion–about thirty soldiers and several officers partaking. Heavy and continual thunder, with everything outside [...]

Eliza’s Journal. March 21. A damp, drizzly day, but I wanted to see Joe in camp once more, and we went down to Alexandria, where Mother and Hatty distributed a lot of sweet flowers to the poor fingerless, one-armed and broken-legged fellows in the hospital, while I went on. Joe has only had command of [...]

Georgeanna’s Journal. March 20. We have been getting some stores to-day for Will Winthrop. They are at last delighted by the order to join Heintzelman. Twenty to thirty thousand men have gone in the transports already. Will’s black mess-boy came in to us and took out a basket with enough for the voyage. Have been [...]

Eliza’s Journal. March 14. One of General Franklin’s aids has been in to say that his Division is now marching into Alexandria and is to embark on Saturday or Sunday, down the Potomac. . . . We went down to Alexandria and took lodgings at Mrs. Dyson’s, on Water street, for over Sunday, and two [...]

Georgeanna’s Journal. March 13 While we were cooking some arrowroot in our parlor for a Vermont private, sick in this hotel, Joe came in, back from Fairfax for a ride. The officers had been all over the old battlefield at Bull Run, McDowell crying, and all of them serious enough. The rebel works at Centreville, [...]

Eliza to Joe Howland. March 12, ‘62. Charley has come back safe and sound via Baltimore from Roanoke, with rebel bowie knives, “shin-plasters,” etc. He is ready to keep with us or go South when we go. He brought up parcels and letters from General Burnside for friends in New York, and took them on [...]

Georgeanna’s Journal. March 12 The most extraordinary movements are taking place. While I write the 85th Pennsylvania is scattered about at rest on 14th street, having just marched back from the other side of the river. The 14th New York Cavalry, dismounted and serving as infantry, marched up before them; wagons filled with baggage, blankets, [...]

Georgeanna’s Journal. March 11. So the great move was made, the thing we had been looking forward to for so many months. The entire army was in motion, troops on the other side the river advancing, troops on this side taking their place. All day Monday and far into the night regiments marched over the [...]