The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Lucia Jane Russell Briggs to Walt Whitman, 21 April 1864
Date: April 21, 1864
Whitman Archive ID: tex.00155
Source: Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas. The transcription presented here is derived from Thomas Donaldson, Walt Whitman the Man (New York: Francis P. Harper, 1896), 151–52. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Elizabeth Lorang, Vanessa Steinroetter, Janel Cayer, and Sarah Synovec
Mr. Whitman:
I1 have been very much interested in your hospital work, of which I have heard through my brother, Dr. Russell of Boston. I inclose seventy–five dollars, which I have collected among a few friends in Salem, and which I hope may be of some little service to our brave boys, who surely should not suffer while we have the power to help them. You have our warmest sympathy in your generous work, and though sad to witness so much suffering, it is indeed a privilege to be able to do something to alleviate it.
I hope to be able to send you an addition to this contribution, and thought of waiting for a larger sum, but I see that you are having numbers of sick sent in to Washington daily, so you will be in immediate want of money.
Very Gratefully Your Friend,
Mrs. George W. Briggs, April 21. Salem, Mass.
Notes:
1. Lucia Jane Russell Briggs, the wife of the pastor of the First Parish Church in Salem, Massachusetts, heard of Whitman's work in the Washington hospitals through her brother, Dr. LeBaron Russell. See Edwin Haviland Miller, ed., The Correspondence (New York: New York University Press, 1961–77), 1:188. [back]