Abby Howland Woolsey to Georgeann and Eliza. New York, April 28. My dear Sisters: Mother’s letter of Sunday morning, giving the startling intelligence of your having gone off suddenly to Fort Monroe, came before breakfast. Since it was your very earnest wish, and, as Mr. Prentiss tells us, you might have chafed at being held [...]

Harriet Roosevelt Woolsey to Georgeanna. Ebbitt House, April 27. Everybody was delighted with what you left in Washington for the hospitals. Some of the jellies and wine (I found a whole box of it left without orders), and some shoes, I took over to Georgetown to Mrs. Russell, who was just out of all. Mother [...]

Eliza to Joe Howland. Washington, April 26. Mr. Knapp, of the Sanitary Commission, has just been over and offers to take a note for me when he goes to Yorktown to morrow. We like him so much, and shall be in communication with him all summer if we succeed in going down, and we are [...]

Abby Howland Woolsey to Mother. New York, April 26th. My Dear Mother: We are all bright and well this fine morning. Jane and Charley have gone to the Philharmonic rehearsal and Carry is practicing some of her old music on the piano, in a way to make you, who love to hear it, happy. Mr. [...]

Jane Stuart Woolsey to Georgeanna. New York, April 25, ‘62. . . . I always have a little talk with Col. Betts coming out of church, he keeps out such a sharp eye. He predicted all that business of the sub-division of McClellan’s command and the Rappahannock department exactly as it fell out. He predicts [...]

Joe Howland to Eliza Woolsey Howland. York River, April 24 Yesterday, at last, I landed the regiment, having asked permission to do so and have the boat thoroughly cleaned. Having picked out a piece of level ground at the head of a little bay where there are lots of oysters, I got a stern-wheeler and [...]

Joe Howland to Eliza Woolsey Howland. York River, April 22 Here we still lie awaiting orders, without a word of news and nothing to do. The boat is so crowded and dirty that life is becoming intensely disgusting, yet there does not appear any prospect of getting away. Last night there was heavy firing towards [...]

Joe Howland to Eliza Woolsey Howland. Near Fortress Monroe, Sunday, April 20. No orders. The boat is becoming very dirty and cannot be cleaned as she is so crowded that there is no place to put any number of the men while cleaning is being done. The decks are swept and shoveled once or twice [...]

From H. L. Hodge. Fortress Monroe, April 19th, 1862, Dear Georgy: We were summoned to Yorktown, and about twenty of us left Philadelphia yesterday morning. We passed on the Bay this morning many transports bearing, as I suppose, Franklin’s Division. I presume that Joe and myself were not far apart. He goes, however, if report [...]

Cousin Margaret Hodge to Georgeanna. Philadelphia, April, 62. My dear Georgy: I feel a great interest in dear Eliza and yourself, and also in your dear mother, and all the family, knowing how anxious you must all be about Joe. I do wish you could get to Fortress Monroe, or, as you say, to the [...]

Joe Howland to Eliza Woolsey Howland. Steamer Daniel Webster, April 18. I have a chance to send a boat ashore to get a mail and so can say good morning to you. All the steamers are lying in the stream two or three miles below Alexandria receiving their “tows.” There are about a hundred schooners [...]

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 [...]