Brief description:
"From the opening of Chapter 1: After months of disaster there had come authentic news of victory [at Antietam]. All Union-loving men drew a long breath of relief when it was certain that Lee had given up the field and fallen back across the Potomac. The newsboys, yelling through the crowded streets in town, and the evening trains arriving from the neighboring city were besieged by eager buyers of the "extras," giving lists of the killed and wounded. Just at sunset of this late September day a tall young girl, in deep mourning, stood at a suburban station clinging to the arm of a sad, stern-featured old man. People eyed them with respect and sympathy, not unmixed with rural curiosity, for Doctor Warren was known and honored by one and all. A few months past his only son had been brought home, shot to death at the head of his regiment, and was laid in his soldier grave in their shaded churchyard."
[A few months earlier...]
"She [Bessie Warren] was still so young—so much a child in his fond eyes—still his sweet-faced, sunny-haired baby Bess. He could hardly realize she was eighteen even when with blushing cheeks she came to show him the photograph of a manly, gallant-looking young soldier in the uniform of a lieutenant of infantry. Strange as the story may seem to-day, there was at the time nothing very surprising about its most salient feature—she and her hero had never met. With other girls she had joined a "Soldiers' Aid Society;" had wrought with devoted though misguided diligence in the manufacture of "Havelocks" that were bearers of much sentiment but no especial benefit to the recipients at the front; and like many of her companions she had slipped her name and address into one of these soon-discarded cap covers.
As luck would have it, their package of “ Havelocks,” fell to the lot of the --th Massachusetts Infantry, and a courteous letter from the adjutant told of its distribution. Bessie Warren was secretary of the society, and the secretary was instructed to write to the adjutant and say how grateful they were to find their efforts so kindly appreciated ..and hoped the adjutant would answer. He did, and sent, moreover, a photographic group of several oflicers taken at regimental headquarters. Each figure was numbered, and on the back the name of each officer with Mr.Paul Revere Abbot being the most handsome, the ladies judged. One of the young ladies reciprocated by returning a photo of themselves to the adjutant of the regiment. Central figure in this group was Bessie Warren, unquestionably the loveliest girl among them all, and one day there came to her a single photograph, a still handsomer picture of Mr. Paul Revere Abbot, and a letter in hand somewhat stiff and cramped, in which the writer apologized for the appearance of the scrawl, explained that his hand had been injured while practicing fencing with a comrade, but that having seen her picture in the group he could not but congratulate himself on having received a "Havelock” from hands so fair, could not resist the impulse to write and personally thank her, and then to inquire if she was a sister of Guthrie Warren, Whom he had known and looked up to at Harvard as a “soph” looks up to a senior; and he enclosed his picture, which would perhaps recall him to Guthrie’s mind."
Guthrie dies a hero's death at Seven Pines in the Peninsula Campaign. The letter writing continued between the two until word came to the Warren's that Abbott was seriously wounded at Antietam. The Warrens rushed to Frederick Maryland to see if they could tend to Abbott. There they learn that Abbot denied writing those letters at all!
There is skullduggery afoot involving by a rival in Abbot's regiment for two women: Bessie Warren and Genevieve Winthrop in Boston, his intended by the arrangement of the Abbott and Winthrop mothers. The story concludes on the battlefields at Fredericksburg in December 1862. [EBx}
[A few months earlier...]
"She [Bessie Warren] was still so young—so much a child in his fond eyes—still his sweet-faced, sunny-haired baby Bess. He could hardly realize she was eighteen even when with blushing cheeks she came to show him the photograph of a manly, gallant-looking young soldier in the uniform of a lieutenant of infantry. Strange as the story may seem to-day, there was at the time nothing very surprising about its most salient feature—she and her hero had never met. With other girls she had joined a "Soldiers' Aid Society;" had wrought with devoted though misguided diligence in the manufacture of "Havelocks" that were bearers of much sentiment but no especial benefit to the recipients at the front; and like many of her companions she had slipped her name and address into one of these soon-discarded cap covers.
As luck would have it, their package of “ Havelocks,” fell to the lot of the --th Massachusetts Infantry, and a courteous letter from the adjutant told of its distribution. Bessie Warren was secretary of the society, and the secretary was instructed to write to the adjutant and say how grateful they were to find their efforts so kindly appreciated ..and hoped the adjutant would answer. He did, and sent, moreover, a photographic group of several oflicers taken at regimental headquarters. Each figure was numbered, and on the back the name of each officer with Mr.Paul Revere Abbot being the most handsome, the ladies judged. One of the young ladies reciprocated by returning a photo of themselves to the adjutant of the regiment. Central figure in this group was Bessie Warren, unquestionably the loveliest girl among them all, and one day there came to her a single photograph, a still handsomer picture of Mr. Paul Revere Abbot, and a letter in hand somewhat stiff and cramped, in which the writer apologized for the appearance of the scrawl, explained that his hand had been injured while practicing fencing with a comrade, but that having seen her picture in the group he could not but congratulate himself on having received a "Havelock” from hands so fair, could not resist the impulse to write and personally thank her, and then to inquire if she was a sister of Guthrie Warren, Whom he had known and looked up to at Harvard as a “soph” looks up to a senior; and he enclosed his picture, which would perhaps recall him to Guthrie’s mind."
Guthrie dies a hero's death at Seven Pines in the Peninsula Campaign. The letter writing continued between the two until word came to the Warren's that Abbott was seriously wounded at Antietam. The Warrens rushed to Frederick Maryland to see if they could tend to Abbott. There they learn that Abbot denied writing those letters at all!
There is skullduggery afoot involving by a rival in Abbot's regiment for two women: Bessie Warren and Genevieve Winthrop in Boston, his intended by the arrangement of the Abbott and Winthrop mothers. The story concludes on the battlefields at Fredericksburg in December 1862. [EBx}
Publication
Harper and Brothers
Genres
Collection
Physical description
92 p.; 9 inches