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 [...]
Jane Stuart Woolsey to Joseph Howland. Saturday Evening, January, ‘62. I received yesterday from Mr. Stephen Williams thirty dollars, on the part of Mr. Alexander Van Rensselaer, “for a soldiers’ library.” Stephen, good old soul, said, “ Oh! I’ve got this commission; now won’t you help me? I don’t know about libraries; you can consult [...]
January. Dear Girls: I have only been waiting for the New Year to come fairly in and shut the door, before sitting down quietly to wish you all the traditionary compliments of the season. . . . We all spent Christmas day together as usual in London Terrace. . . . The prettiest feature of [...]
Abby Howland Woolsey to Georgeanna and Eliza. December 26. Dear Girls: We had a great day yesterday. Of course, Mother and the girls and Charley broke through the rule we had prescribed for ourselves, not to give Christmas presents, and launched upon Jane and me wholly unprepared, a flood of pretty and useful things. . [...]
Eliza’s Journal:Christmas Day we spent with Joseph again in camp, going round by Alexandria to pick up Chaplain Hopkins and take him with us. We had taken some goodies and little traps with us for the men in the hospitals in Alexandria and were glad to find the nice arrangements that had already been made [...]
Mother to Georgeanna and Eliza. Monday, December 24, 1861. My dear Girls: Col. D. is a godsend! I was in despair at the thought of not getting some little Christmas box off so as to reach you to-morrow, when lo! he appeared, like an angel of mercy and offered to take anything we might have [...]
Francis Bacon to Georgeanna Muirson Woolsey. Tybee Island, Dec. 24, ‘61. You speak of our hospital as a matter of course; and we are, by and by, to have one, as yet uncommenced; but we owe the medical department no thanks for this when we get it. Dr. Cooper, Medical Director of the expedition, a [...]
December ‘61. Dear Girls: “We are in the midst of stirring times,” as the newspapers say–or rather, stirring times are in our midst, as well as all around us. I am prepared to be astonished at nothing, and to regard all events with stoicism bordering on a fiendish glee. New York was sizzling on Monday [...]
Abby Howland Woolsey to Georgeanna and Eliza. December 6th. If Mr. Craney thought the bundle of hair was a feather-bed, he will certainly think that the stocking box, when it arrives, is the bedstead following on. . . . Let me describe its contents. In the first place, E’s cheque bought seven dozen and a [...]
Thursday Evening, December 5. My dear Girls: This will be a little Sunday greeting to you, probably, as I write it merely to give you my love, and your address to Mr. Charles Johnson of Norwich. He is now here spending the evening, and, as usual, very entertaining. He leaves to-morrow for Washington. He goes [...]
Ebbitt House, December 1, ‘61 We saw yesterday a nice dodge for enlarging your tent and making the back one more private. It is pitching the two tents three or four feet apart and spreading the fly over the intermediate vestibule. Chaplain Edward Walker of the 4th Connecticut, whom we went to see yesterday, had [...]
December 1st. L. came in a few evenings ago. He was at Conway last summer, and able to contradict an absurd story that was going the rounds,–that Charley and Joe having joined the army, Mother had given up housekeeping and gone into the hospitals, and all the daughters were children of the regiment! Dr. Carmalt [...]
The Governors of all the loyal states issued in these dark days their annual proclamation of a day of Thanksgiving. Governor Andrews’ of Massachusetts was dated Nov. 21,’61, “the anniversary of the day on which the Pilgrims of Massachusetts on board the Mayflower united themselves in a solemn compact of government: ‘Sing aloud unto God our [...]
November 25. We have been evacuating the British with great zest to-day; good weather, clean streets, and many praises for the 22nd, Charley’s regiment, among other battalions–praises, that is, with the exception of some vile youths of the street, near Stuart’s, who shouted “hurrah for the never go ‘ways!” . . . We had a [...]
November. Bessie Wolcott’s wedding came off very brilliantly. Carry went out to Astoria the day before. Mother and Hatty drove out together. Mary is said to have looked very handsome in white silk trimmed with black lace and white silk ruches. Hatty wore her crimson silk with white valencienne spencer or waist, and mother was [...]