Jane Stuart Woolsey to a friend in Europe. Washington, May 25. We have just been spending a month in Washington, my first visit since the war, and the city certainly looks like war-time, the white tents showing out of the green of all the hills, headquarters’ flags flying above all the remaining bits of wood, [...]

“Headquarters Army of Potomac, April 30. Major General Howard: I have the honor to enclose to you the accompanying statement concerning the position and forces of the enemy. Very respectfully, Your obedient servant, Chas. W. Woolsey, Lt. and A. D. C.” _____________ Copy of telegram: “The Major General commanding directs that General Sedgwick cross the [...]

Abby Howland Woolsey to her sister, Georgeanna. NEW YORK, Feb. 9th, 1863. Charley sends his ” regrets ” from Headquarters for the Bond wedding. We get his letters with wonderful despatch. A letter written Saturday night delivered here by twelve on Monday! General Williams had reached Falmouth again and will be very busy. The four [...]

What the children played in those days is shown by the following little letter: Little May Howland to Georgeanna. NEW YORK, January, 1863. Dear Aunty: Did you get my letter I wrote you from Moremamma’s? You must come home now and nurse me, I have the chicken pox. . . . The children play that [...]

From Jane Stuart Woolsey: PORTSMOUTH GROVE. My dear Cousin Margaret: Now that I have been long enough in this place to have learned tolerably well my topography, the names and titles of my coadjutors, how to make out my diet books, etc., . . . I can take breath (and “my pen ” as the [...]

Georgranna Woolsey to her brother-in-law, Joseph Woolsey. P. G. HOSPITAL. Thank you, my Colonel, for the doughnuts and comic papers. They are just what the men prize most, and under every pillow I shall establish a little nest of both! . . . I always accompany a “Life of Headley Vicars” with a piece of [...]

The boxes of home supplies now had Portsmouth Grove Hospital as their principal destination. The following is one of the letters in return for supplies: The games, as well as the slates, which came in the boxes and barrels, are a great delight. I have just been over to see Fitch and set him up [...]

Jane, Sarah Woolsey and G. were meantime nicely established at the hospital six miles from Newport, R. I., with a jolly little thin board house built for the nursing staff; their rooms 10 x 10, furnished from home with every comfort, and work fairly begun. Jane Stuart Woolsey to Abby Howland Woolsey: PORTSMOUTH GROVE, January, [...]

On the 22nd of September, 1862, a gleam of light had shone, the President had issued “his preliminary proclamation of emancipation; and now on January 1st, 1863 came the announcement of full liberty to the captives. Extract from the Proclamation. “I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power vested in [...]

Eliza Woolsey Howland to Chaplain Henry Hopkins December, ’62. Charley, you may have heard, has gone into the service as lieutenant in the 164th, but he was detached at once for staff duty and is aide to General Burnside and a member of good old General Seth Williams’ mess–just where we would most like to [...]

Abby Howland Woolsey to her sister, Goergeanna. New York, October 6th. Jane wishes me to tell you that she leaves here by the same route that you took for Portsmouth Grove, on Wednesday, 8 A. M. She has sent word to Sarah to meet her on the train at New Haven. . . . Charley [...]

Sarah Chauncey Woolsey to her cousin, Georgeanna at Portsmouth Grove. New Haven, October, ’62. And now for Miss Wormeley’s delightful letter; my dear, it sounds too good to come true, all of it, and yet I can’t help thinking that Providence smiles on the scheme and will bring about papa’s consent. . . . We [...]

On September 17th the fierce battle of Antietam was fought by the Army of the Potomac,–a drawn battle, little better than a defeat for us; and though the rebels retired there was no following up on our part, and no result worth the enormous loss of life. And now the moment had come for the [...]

Abby Howland Woolsey to H. Gilman. Litchfield, Sept. 22. Charley is trying for a Lieutenancy in one of the new regiments, and Governor Morgan has promised, as all governors do, to “see about it.” This is going to be a great drain on Mother’s spirits and strength, if the application succeeds, and will bring us [...]

  The interchange of letters between Miss Wormeley and G[eorgeanna] ended in an agreement that they should join hands again for hospital work at Portsmouth Grove, and as G. made bold to propose… Jane and Sarah Woolsey as co-laborers, all three of them were given the chance they coveted. Miss Wormeley’s plan for organizing will [...]

Mr. Lincoln’s call for 300,000 more troops was being answered. All over the country camps were being formed and boys drilled in all the pleasant villages of the land. Mother and all of us went to rest awhile, after Charley and G. came home, in Litchfield, and watched the drilling and recruiting. Abby Howland Woolsey [...]

Chaplain Henry Hopkins to Georgeanna Woolsey. Alexandria Hospital, Sept., 1862. My dear Miss Woolsey: In great haste I write to say that to dispense anything which will do the bodies of these poor sufferers good will be a most welcome task. . . . Outside of the house, at the Mansion Hospital, we fed 1,500, [...]

The retreat from the Peninsula was almost immediately, (August 29, ’62,) followed by the “Second Bull Run” disaster, which again filled the Washington and Alexandria hospitals to overflowing and taxed the hospital workers to the utmost. Chaplain Hopkins, still on hard service in Alexandria, writes: Office of General Hospital, 12 O’clock Sunday Night. Alexandria, August [...]

  A camp for sick and wounded had been established at Portsmouth Grove, near Newport, R. I., and as a matter of course it appealed to Miss Wormeley, its near neighbor. She was allowed only a short rest before earnest request came to her to take charge of the nursing there. We were all hankering [...]

On the 14th of August–McClellan’s attempt to reach Richmond via the Chickahominy swamps having proved a disastrous failure–the transfer of the army to Washington began. Lieutenant Robert Wilson of J. H.’s regiment wrote home at the time a letter which might easily have come from any regiment in the Army of the Potomac. “Six days’ [...]

Eliza Woolsey Howland to her Mother. Fishkill, Aug. 15. Dear Mother: In answer to my letter Dr. Draper came up yesterday noon and stayed till this afternoon. . . . The visit was part professional and part for pleasure and was satisfactory in both ways. He finds Joe improving, though more slowly than he had [...]

Eliza Woolsey Howland and Georgeanna… were planning to join the hospital service again, and keep near [Eliza’s husband] Joe, under the Sanitary Commission auspices. Frederick Law Olmsted to Eliza Woolsey Howland U. S. Sanitary Commission, New York Agency, 40 Broadway. New York, 25th July, 1862. Dear Mrs. Howland: I have just received your note of [...]

By July 22 [Colonel] Joe [Howland] could not be kept away from the army, and only half well, he started back, probably in a hospital return boat, to the regiment at Harrison’s Landing. It was, however, only to break down again. The Historical Sketch of the 16th, prepared for their reunion at Potsdam in 1886, [...]

Somewhere about July 14, ’62, Charley and G. must have gone home from Harrison’s Landing, probably in a returning hospital ship. The record is lacking–Sarah Woolsey’s letter of July 22 being the first mention of it. She had been serving all this time at the New Haven Hospital. Sarah Chauncey Woolsey to Georgeanna Woolsey. New [...]