![LINCOLN, Abraham. Autograph letter signed ("A. Lincoln") as President to "Hon. Sec. of War" [Edwin M. Stanton], Washington D.C., 15 July 1862. 1 full page, 8vo, integral blank, on Executive Mansion stationery. Excellent condition. [With:] Original envelope addressed by Lincoln to "Hon. Sec. of War," and with autograph note signed with initials: "Please see this young man a moment A.L."](https://www.christies.com.cn/img/LotImages/2000/NYR/2000_NYR_09364_0091_000(011318).jpg?w=1)
细节
LINCOLN, Abraham. Autograph letter signed ("A. Lincoln") as President to "Hon. Sec. of War" [Edwin M. Stanton], Washington D.C., 15 July 1862. 1 full page, 8vo, integral blank, on Executive Mansion stationery. Excellent condition. [With:] Original envelope addressed by Lincoln to "Hon. Sec. of War," and with autograph note signed with initials: "Please see this young man a moment A.L."
LINCOLN AND MRS. POMROY, "ONE OF THE BEST WOMEN I EVER KNEW," "A WIDOW WHO HAS LOST ALL HER OTHER CHILDREN, AND HAS CHEERFULLY GIVEN THIS ONE TO THE WAR"
A remarkable letter in which Lincoln very particularly asks Stanton to grant a favor to a soldier, son of the famous Civil War nurse, Rebecca R. Pomroy, who nursed Mary Lincoln and Tad Lincoln in the White House in February and March 1862 and commiserated with the grief-stricken President himself after Tad's death. The letter is strongly evocative of the famous letter from Lincoln to the Boston widow Mrs. Bixby, who was believed to have lost five sons in the service of the Union (although whether Lincoln actually wrote that letter has recently been questioned).
Lincoln writes: "This young man--George K. Pomeroy [sic]--is the son of one of the best women I ever knew--a widow who has lost all her other children, and has cheerfully given this one to the war, and devotes herself exclusively to nursing our sick and wounded soldiers. I wish to do something for him, and, even, to strain a point for that object. I wish you would see him, and give him a second Lieutenancy in the regular Army, in the first vacancy not already promised. He has already served nearly a year in the volunteers. This shall be your voucher." Further emphasizing his wishes, Lincoln notes and initials the envelope: "Please see this young man a moment."
Rebecca R. Pomroy, of Chelsea, Massachustts, nursed her ailing husband for many years up to his death, and, at the outbreak of the Civil War determined to devote herself to the nursing of the Union wounded. With the approval of Dorothea Dix (1802-1887), superintendent of nursing for the Union Army, she went to Washington and took up her duties in September 1861 at Georgetown Hospital and later Columbia College. Pomroy's reminiscences, Echoes from Hospital and White House (edited by Anna Boyden), provide a detailed account of her life and connections with the Lincolns. In February 1862, the Lincolns' sons Willie and Tad became ill with what was diagnosed as "bilious fever"; Willie, age 12, died on 20 February. His death greatly affected Mary Lincoln. As Pomroy's book recounts: "the physicians were advising that 'Little Tad' and Mrs. Lincoln have better attendance, as there was no one to care for them but Mr. Lincoln and poor old Aunt Mary, a colored nurse...The President asked Miss Dix if she could recommend...a good nurse. She told him there was one...that she thought would give perfect satisfaction...she told him it was Mrs. Pomroy. 'Oh, yes, he said, 'I have heard of her; will you get her for me?'" (Echoes, pp.52-53). On the insistence of Dix, Pomroy left her patients in the soldiers' wards for the Lincoln White House, where she remained through February and March of 1862. Though Tad recovered from his illness, "the President...would not dismiss her from his home entirely, but arranged to carry her daily to the hospital" (Echoes, p.57). The book, not often referred to in Lincoln literature, contains striking personal accounts of her contacts with the President, Mary Lincoln and Tad. At one point, observing Tad's aversion to books and discipline, Lincoln commented "'Let him run...he will have time enough to learn his letters and get pokey'" (Echoes, p.85). Pomroy remained close to the Lincoln family, visiting frequently, and according to Boyden, the President was always eager to reward her selfless devotion and hard work, once asking her: "'Mrs. Pomroy, I want to do something for you; what shall it be?...If it is in my power, you shall have it.'" Pomroy requested that the President visit with the soldiers under her care, and he happily obliged: "Within a week the Presidential carriage was drawn up at Columbia College, and Senator Browning, from Illinois, alighted, and called for Mrs. Pomroy." Rebecca Pomroy recounts that "'One poor fellow for days afterwards refused to wash the hand that grasped the President's'" (Echoes, pp. 93-94). Lincoln's request for a promotion for Mrs. Pomroy's sole surviving son, in this letter, was granted; George Pomroy was appointed second lieutenant of the Third Infantry two days after this letter was written.
Published in Collected Works, ed. Basler, 5:326-327. A copy of Pomroy's account of her years in Washington accompanies the lot: Boyden, Anna. Echoes from Hospital and White House: A Record of Mrs. Rebecca R. Pomroy's Experience in War-Times, Boston: Lothrop & Co., 1884. 8vo, original green cloth, slight wear to binding.
Provenance: Anonymous owner (sale, American Art Association/Anderson Galleries, 15 December 1930, lot 277).
LINCOLN AND MRS. POMROY, "ONE OF THE BEST WOMEN I EVER KNEW," "A WIDOW WHO HAS LOST ALL HER OTHER CHILDREN, AND HAS CHEERFULLY GIVEN THIS ONE TO THE WAR"
A remarkable letter in which Lincoln very particularly asks Stanton to grant a favor to a soldier, son of the famous Civil War nurse, Rebecca R. Pomroy, who nursed Mary Lincoln and Tad Lincoln in the White House in February and March 1862 and commiserated with the grief-stricken President himself after Tad's death. The letter is strongly evocative of the famous letter from Lincoln to the Boston widow Mrs. Bixby, who was believed to have lost five sons in the service of the Union (although whether Lincoln actually wrote that letter has recently been questioned).
Lincoln writes: "This young man--George K. Pomeroy [sic]--is the son of one of the best women I ever knew--a widow who has lost all her other children, and has cheerfully given this one to the war, and devotes herself exclusively to nursing our sick and wounded soldiers. I wish to do something for him, and, even, to strain a point for that object. I wish you would see him, and give him a second Lieutenancy in the regular Army, in the first vacancy not already promised. He has already served nearly a year in the volunteers. This shall be your voucher." Further emphasizing his wishes, Lincoln notes and initials the envelope: "Please see this young man a moment."
Rebecca R. Pomroy, of Chelsea, Massachustts, nursed her ailing husband for many years up to his death, and, at the outbreak of the Civil War determined to devote herself to the nursing of the Union wounded. With the approval of Dorothea Dix (1802-1887), superintendent of nursing for the Union Army, she went to Washington and took up her duties in September 1861 at Georgetown Hospital and later Columbia College. Pomroy's reminiscences, Echoes from Hospital and White House (edited by Anna Boyden), provide a detailed account of her life and connections with the Lincolns. In February 1862, the Lincolns' sons Willie and Tad became ill with what was diagnosed as "bilious fever"; Willie, age 12, died on 20 February. His death greatly affected Mary Lincoln. As Pomroy's book recounts: "the physicians were advising that 'Little Tad' and Mrs. Lincoln have better attendance, as there was no one to care for them but Mr. Lincoln and poor old Aunt Mary, a colored nurse...The President asked Miss Dix if she could recommend...a good nurse. She told him there was one...that she thought would give perfect satisfaction...she told him it was Mrs. Pomroy. 'Oh, yes, he said, 'I have heard of her; will you get her for me?'" (Echoes, pp.52-53). On the insistence of Dix, Pomroy left her patients in the soldiers' wards for the Lincoln White House, where she remained through February and March of 1862. Though Tad recovered from his illness, "the President...would not dismiss her from his home entirely, but arranged to carry her daily to the hospital" (Echoes, p.57). The book, not often referred to in Lincoln literature, contains striking personal accounts of her contacts with the President, Mary Lincoln and Tad. At one point, observing Tad's aversion to books and discipline, Lincoln commented "'Let him run...he will have time enough to learn his letters and get pokey'" (Echoes, p.85). Pomroy remained close to the Lincoln family, visiting frequently, and according to Boyden, the President was always eager to reward her selfless devotion and hard work, once asking her: "'Mrs. Pomroy, I want to do something for you; what shall it be?...If it is in my power, you shall have it.'" Pomroy requested that the President visit with the soldiers under her care, and he happily obliged: "Within a week the Presidential carriage was drawn up at Columbia College, and Senator Browning, from Illinois, alighted, and called for Mrs. Pomroy." Rebecca Pomroy recounts that "'One poor fellow for days afterwards refused to wash the hand that grasped the President's'" (Echoes, pp. 93-94). Lincoln's request for a promotion for Mrs. Pomroy's sole surviving son, in this letter, was granted; George Pomroy was appointed second lieutenant of the Third Infantry two days after this letter was written.
Published in Collected Works, ed. Basler, 5:326-327. A copy of Pomroy's account of her years in Washington accompanies the lot: Boyden, Anna. Echoes from Hospital and White House: A Record of Mrs. Rebecca R. Pomroy's Experience in War-Times, Boston: Lothrop & Co., 1884. 8vo, original green cloth, slight wear to binding.
Provenance: Anonymous owner (sale, American Art Association/Anderson Galleries, 15 December 1930, lot 277).