In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

68 letter 25  To Edmund Clarence Stedman March 20, 1862 New York City, New York March 20th 1862 Dear Stedman, You must blame Stoddard for the delay in not answering your letter, written so many weeks ago to us. As I see no indication that he will ever write you, I will wait no longer. I have read all your late war letters with pleasure, they are very good, written with ease and spirit1 —I like the tone of the World in regard to McLellan,2 and Oh how I detest the Tribune!3 If it were right, I should hate it, it is so mean, so coarsely malignant. We get furious, but we still read. Bayard said he saw you in Manassas talking to McLellan—he, B, cannot help feeling the pressure of the Tribune agencies.4 He also says that you have not much to do in your office, I beg you to write some poems, do my friend, for you are a poet. Stoddard is hard at work on the King’s Bell,5 and hopes to finish it. Alas, what has happened since he began it—disaster to us in birth and death.6 We can afford now to be poor poets, since we have no child whose future depends on us. I have written several poems about Willy which made me cry bitterly in the writing, and I think they will touch you.7 My book has gone to print, and will be published before long.8 Can you notice it in some paper your way? I shall be horribly disappointed if Carlton9 is not paid for his venture, I expect to make nothing. Ludlow has got into the CH at last.10 I saw him yesterday at his desk, chewing tobacco at a fearful rate. His wife is sick and his wife’s sister has been spitting blood.11 Aldrich12 comes here seldom, once in two weeks perhaps, he likes fewer and fewer people and will finally end like Timon, without being able to get up the dishes for a mock banquet even.13 The Grahams are in France. Stoddard and I are much by ourselves, as far as society goes, we have but a dreary time. Wilson writes me as often as he can, he appears to be happily placed, but what will he do after the wars 69 are over? Jerome Bonaparte’s14 dinners will then be a Barmecide feast to him.15 He has been a comfort to me this winter and I trust he will continue to be—for how can he disappoint my bereaved heart? Had I money I would go to Baltimore and Washington to see him and you. If only some newspaper would engage me to write a few feminine seat-of-war letters! I could do them well I know. But there seems to be no luck for me—Do you know that I have fallen so low as to have a story in the Leader?16 I got ten dollars for it! It was not a tremenjous story but it was worth more than that. Are you bored nowadays? Tell me what I can do to fill up the hours that are made hollow by my grief. Will you write me? I hope your wife and children are well—farewell— Yours ever EDBS17 Manuscript: Edmund Clarence Stedman Papers, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University notes 1. Although Stedman continued to write war correspondence for the World, he alsosecuredapositionintheofficeofAttorneyGeneralEdwardBates(1793–1869) in January 1862. 2. Stedman played a large part in bringing the World to support the general-inchief of the Union Army, General George B. McClellan (1826–1885), and his correspondencebenefittedfromhavingaccesstoMcClellanandmembersof hisstaff. 3. Unlike the World, the New York Tribune was critical of McClellan and questioned his commitment to suppressing the rebellion of the southern states. 4. Taylor went to Washington in early March 1862 to report for the New York Tribune on the opening of the Union Army’s Peninsula Campaign. Along with a number of other correspondents, Taylor examined the abandoned enemy position at Manassas, only to find that the Confederate fortifications were weak and should have been easily occupied after the First Battle of Bull Run (July 21, 1861). On March 15, 1862, he published a letter in the Tribune that criticized McClellan’s reluctance to take the advantage in the field. While in Washington, he was asked to testify before a Senate committee on the conduct of the war. 5...

Share