(CIVIL WAR) Joseph M Driver Letters of a Union hospital chap

Sale 2646 - Lot 76

Price Realized: $ 750

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Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200

(CIVIL WAR.) Joseph M. Driver. Letters of a Union hospital chaplain, one describing a reception with President Lincoln. 6 Autograph Letters Signed to wife Maria Saunders Driver. 8 March 1863 letter not signed but apparently complete; minimal wear. Washington, December 1862 to July 1863

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Joseph Metcalf Driver (1801-1878) was a retired Congregational clergyman when he was appointed chaplain of Washington's Columbia Military Hospital in 1862. His first letter dated 7 December 1862 describes being summoned past midnight to converse with a dying typhoid patient, "poor, gently delirious . . . his wanderings all religious, penitential, prayerful, gentle. . . . My heart aches so over these poor typhoids! We have lost about 62 per ct. of them."

On 8 March 1863 he wrote "I attended the president's reception (evening). Such a crowd! Oh mercy! Entered the crowd on the great path, thro' the White House foregrounds, about three or four rods from the portico, and by watch was about 40 minutes reaching the portico. . . . Was just an hour to the president's hand. It was a blaze of fashion of various display."

On 3 May 1863 he "preached a sermon on Pres. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation," which he describes at length. On 16 May 1863 he discusses "my exceeding comfort with my contrabands. . . . It is an exquisite comfort & delight to meet and worship with them. I never enjoyed more intimate & charming fellowship. They seem edified and very fond of me."

With--a letter to Maria Driver from her aunt in Lynn, MA, 17 May 1863; and a letter to Rev. Driver from Mrs. J.E. Lawrence of Cambridgeport, MA, 26 November 1865.