"MRS. MOORE … AND HER DAUGHTER MISS JANE B. MOORE, BOTH NOTED FOR THEIR PHILANTHROPIC LABOR AMONG OUR SICK AND WOUNDED SOLDIERS, HAVE DONE ME THE HONOR OF A CALL, AND FOR WHICH I AM GRATEFUL."
LINCOLN, Abraham. Autograph note signed. Washington, D.C., June 22, 1863. One leaf, 4-3/4 x 7-1/2 inches, floated, window matted and framed with a portrait of Lincoln, entire piece measures 16 by 20 inches. $60,000.
A remarkable Lincoln note commemorating his visit with Jane Boswell Moore and her mother, both outstanding battle-field volunteers, caring “for wounded soldiers in the aftermath of some of the conflict’s fiercest engagements in the east” throughout the war, the visit occurring days before the Battle of Gettysburg, after which both women worked for weeks tending to the wounded.
Jane Boswell Moore, a native of Baltimore, "who at the war's outset aided wounded and sick soldiers brought to the city, believed that by the late summer of 1862 her talents could be put to better use in the field. After the conflict's bloodiest day at Antietam, Moore ventured from Baltimore to Sharpsburg [with her constant companion, her mother]. From that moment until the war's end she cared for wounded soldiers in the aftermath of some of the conflict's fiercest engagements in the east, including Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and Petersburg" (Jonathan Noyalas). "In not a few instances Miss Moore was engaged in the hazardous work of ministering to the wounded even before they were removed from the battle-field. She has braved danger of every kind short of actual presence in a battle, in relieving the sufferings of our wounded braves" (Frank Moore, Women of the War). Moore was also a gifted writer, and her eloquent and graphic descriptions of her work among the wounded were published in letters by the Observer, the Advocate and Family Guardian, and other publications. At Petersburg, she wrote, "Half an hour after they were wounded, many of the victims of the fatal mine explosion were under our care, for, by a special order from General Grant, we were allowed to remove to the 'front,' something over a mile and a half from Petersburg… the soul sickens with the horror of the scenes in those woods on and after July 30th… I recall those woods, thickly strewn with the mangled and dying, some with arm and leg off, one with both eyes gone, some insensible, and others moaning in the agony of pain."
Moore and her mother visited Lincoln in Washington on June 22nd, 1863, nine days before the Battle of Gettysburg. Soon after the battle, both women went to Gettysburg and tended the wounded. Later Moore wrote, "For more than four weeks (beginning the first few days after the fight), we were engaged in the field hospitals of the Second Army Corps, which, with every other, and perhaps more than any other, covered itself with immortal glory on that bloody field. Words utterly fall short in describing the appearance of those woods on the morning we reached the hospital, after riding through frozen streams, amid the still unburied bodies of men and horse that lay putrefying on the field… the site of the hospital, which had been hurriedly chosen, was on a piece of rising ground… along which ran a creek, near whose banks lay hundreds of wounded and dying Rebels, most of whom were exposed to the pitiless pelting of the storm…" Moore returned to Gettysburg the following November for the dedication of the Soldier's National Cemetery and, one would assume, was present at Lincoln's delivery of the Gettysburg Address. She wrote, "I write these lines from the solitude of my chamber, on the eve of the National celebration at Gettysburg… how utterly unconscious coming generations will be, aye, even gazing years hence, of the scenes enacted there… it is well for all of us to pause, and to think of what an awful sacrifice ourselves in our country were then and there redeemed…"
Decades after the war, in ill health, Moore successfully petitioned for a government pension for her services. According to the official record, she and her mother, from the time of the battle of Antietam, "began active operations in the field in visiting field hospitals and caring the sick and wounded. Their times was divided from this time until the close of the war between nursing in the field hospitals and gathering supplies and valuable donations…For days at a time they would be ministering to the sick and wounded of both armies upon the battle field, unsheltered from the inclement weather that generally followed great battles, sleeping at night in the small tents, that they might continuing their work early in the morning." According to the record, they were present at Winchester, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Petersburgh, Appomattox and Cedar Creek. "Original letters and orders address to her while engaged in this service [exist] from President Lincoln, General Grant, Meade, Hancock, Sheridan, Hooker…[and] Burnside…all of which clearly establish the facts set forth."
Lincoln's note has at the top a calligraphic heading which reads, "One Flag & Union." The text of the note reads: "This morning Mrs. Moore and her daughter Miss Jane B. Moore, both noted for their philanthropic labor among our sick and wounded soldiers, have done me the honor of a call, and for which I am grateful. Lincoln June 22,1863." The verso of the note is signed by Brigadier General Commander G. A. DuRussy, "HdQrs: Defenses of Washington, So: of the Potomac, June 22 1863" and "Jas A Hardie/ A. A. G." DeRussy was Brigadier General of Volunteers and commanded the southern defenses of Washington, D. C. James A. Hardie was a member of Major General Henry W. Halleck's staff and was famously appointed to find Major General George G. Meade and deliver the news on June 28th, 1863 that he was to replace Hooker as commander of the Army of the Potomac, right before the Battle of Gettysburg.
Fine condition, handsomely window matted and framed.