Georgeanna’s Journal. March 10. All strange rumors come on Sunday. Josepha Crosby, Hatty and I went down to spend the afternoon at the Patent Office Hospital. During the week the camps had been emptied of convalescents, sent north to recover, and their places in the hospitals were occupied by others. The Patent Office is full [...]

Jane Stuart Woolsey to Eliza.. March 10, ‘62. Theodore Bronson has just called to say that he saw Mr. Woolsey (Charley) in Baltimore last night all well. He saw his name in the papers as bearer of despatches and wondered whether he really had any, or if it was a sort of passport. I am [...]

Eliza‘s journal. March 9. A day of great excitement, for beside the news of the evacuation of Leesburg and the capture of Cockpit Point battery, we have the great naval fight at Fortress Monroe. The great demon ship, the Merrimac, came down from Norfolk toward Newport News and attacked our ships Congress and Cumberland, destroying [...]

Eliza‘s journal. Saturday, March 8th. The item this morning is that Colonel Davies was confirmed yesterday by the Senate as Brigadier General, so J. is now Colonel of the 16th by unanimous choice of the officers, and will take command at once.[1] He writes by the orderly that he has been with General Slocum to [...]

March. Dear Girls: May is busy concocting things for a fair she and Bertha hold to-day, for the benefit of our “brave volunteers.” Papa and mamma and aunties are to buy the things, and May is to spend the money in little books, the first day she is well enough to come over. Robert asked [...]

Wednesday, February 26. Encouraged by several windy days, which were likely to dry the roads, we ventured out to Joe’s camp for the first time since early in January, to show it to Mother and Hatty. The roads were unexpectedly good, the only really bad places being near the camp. J. had dined, but gave [...]

Eliza Woolsey Howland to Joe Howland. February 21 We went yesterday to the Navy Yard and were very much interested in all we saw. They make 15,000 Enfield rifle and musket balls in every twelve hours, or 30,000 while (as now) they work day and night! They also turn out 800 rifled and other cannon [...]

February 18th. We have just packed and despatched Charley for Baltimore and Fortress Monroe, and are now writing notes of introduction for Mr. Vincent Colyer, who is to join him at the Fortress, and if possible take him with him to Roanoke and Port Royal. I have given him a note to Mr. Withers, and [...]

February 13. I have nothing more than the usual “all right” to tell you, but you must always have that. We ought to congratulate each other on the good news from Roanoke Island and Tennessee, which quite thrilled us all yesterday. We were out at Will Winthrop’s camp when the boys cried the “Star” and [...]

One of the alleviations of the situation at the Ebbitt House just at this time was the coming in now and then of the family cousin William Winthrop, from his camp near Washington, or an occasional jolly, not to say audacious, note from him. William Winthrop to Georgeanna. Headquarters Berdan’s U. S. Sharpshooters, February…….. Dear Mrs. [...]

Eliza’s Journal. February 4. Mother and all of us went down to Alexandria to visit the hospitals,–Charley provided with camp bed, blankets, etc. to go out and make Joe a visit. Joe met us in Alexandria with the General, and a spare horse for Charley. . . . Saturday afternoon Joe came in from camp [...]

Eliza’s Journal. February 1. We all went to the Wilkes’s Friday evening–a very pleasant little party. General McClellan could not come, but there were five other generals, FitzJohn Porter, Stoneman, Barry and Butterfield; also Commodore Shubrick, Commodore Wilkes, Judge Loring and family, the Prussian minister and family, and a good many lesser lights. General Seth [...]

Eliza Woolsey Howland to Joe Howland. Jan. 30th. The only thing of interest I have to tell you is of a very nice call we had last evening from General Williams (your friend Seth). He got Miss Wilkes to bring him round and introduce him, and told us he had long wanted to call on [...]

Eliza writes Jan. 29, ‘62: Mother, Hatty and Charley arrived last night in the middle of the storm and mud. Mother is now writing at the table with me, while H. is gazing admiringly at a group of Irish Brigadiers at the door. Charley is out somewhere, and is to meet the rest of us [...]

Eliza to Joe Howland. January 28. My only letter by the mail last night was from Major Crane, about some of the patients of his Division who came down the Potomac in a wretched condition on a canal boat some time ago. He is going to do his best to find out who is responsible [...]

Georgeanna to Mother. Steamer Spaulding. The Spaulding is bunked in every hole and corner. The last hundred patients were put on board to relieve the over-crowded shore hospital late last night; stopped at the gang plank, each one, while Charley numbered all their little treasures and wrote the man’s name. Though these night scenes on [...]

January, ‘62. To-day we are going out to look up some nurses for Will Winthrop’s regiment, and then to the Senate. I forgot to tell you a pretty story we heard the other day from Mrs. Gibbons, our Quaker lady friend. She is a very sweet, kind old lady, and she and her daughter have [...]

Mrs. Thomas Gibbons, mentioned in the following letters, was one of the distinguished Hopper family of “Friends”– strong abolitionists and managers of what was called the “underground railroad.” Through their efforts many wretched hunted colored people were landed safely in Canada. Mrs. Gibbons was busy in the war from the beginning, and all her life [...]

Mother to Georgeanna and Eliza. 8 Brevoort Place, Tuesday Eve. My Dear Girls: The question of my going on to Washington has been agitated for some time past, yet I do not seem to come to any decision about it; not but that I would dearly love to look upon your faces again, and enjoy [...]

Boston, January 13th. Dear Girls: I dare say you will expect a letter from me while I am in Boston. . . . I find it exactly as I left it three years ago, only warmer. It used to be the coldest place imaginable, but the heated term seems to be on, so there is [...]

Among these released Richmond prisoners were twenty-one men of the 27th N. Y., a regiment brigaded with our 16th. Eliza’s Journal, Jan. 11, ’62 says:Joe told us of the pretty reception they had given the returned Richmond prisoners of the 27th. It was a shockingly muddy day or the whole brigade would have marched down to [...]

E’s journal. January 1862. . . . Sunday evening James Gillette came up to our room to tell us his story. He is one of the two hundred and forty Union soldiers just released from Richmond prisons in exchange for an equal number of rebel prisoners from Fort Warren. He was with the 71st N. [...]

8 Brevoort Place, January 7. My Dear Girls: I have only time before mailing hour for a short letter, but must tell you how pleasantly Hatty’s and Carry’s little party went off last night. . . . Maillard sent up at eleven a very handsome little supper. . . . Bessie and Mr. Merchant came [...]

 My dear Girls: The news of Mason and Slidell’s release has arrived since you wrote. It was generally known here about 11 A. M. Saturday. I am quite satisfied with the release and with the grounds of it. In making the claim, England runs counter to all her preceding history in the matter of maritime [...]