Georgeanna Muirson Woolsey to her Mother.
Fishkill, August 5.
Dear Mother: Thank you for your nice note which came last night. . . . No wonder you regret Gettysburg. You will be gladder all the time that you went there and did what you did; and you will be ready to give me great praise, I hope, when I tell you that I have given up all idea of going back there, and have accepted in place of it Mrs. Gibbons’ offer of the position she is giving up at Point Lookout Hospital; securing, before I go, the month you want me to have in the country, as we need not go to the Point before September. After the intense satisfaction you have experienced at Gettysburg, you cannot, my dear and patriotic Mamma, be otherwise than delighted at the prospect before us, while you must regret that I cannot also pull the special diet of Gettysburg through. Mrs. Gibbons will, I suppose, have got all things about straight at the Point, so that with little effort we can keep them going. It will be an easy and pleasant position; better, “till this cruel war is over,” than sitting at home thinking what we might be doing. The surgeon in charge is “delighted” to think that we will come. . . . I shall hanker for our old life at Gettysburg and wish you and I were going back to run the new concern. However, there will be the satisfaction of taking the wind out of the “sisters'” sails. I dare say they will have made headway during this interval, and when I arrive with three feathers stuck in my head, “O won’t I make those ladies stare.” . . . We shall collect at home once more, Charley and all, before the winter, as you will not of course go to Brattleboro now till he arrives. . . .