This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 3/7/2024
[CIVIL WAR]. [BELL, Annie (1839-?), association]. DEAN, John. Autograph Letter Signed by John Dean to His Cousin, Famed Civil War Nurse Annie Bell. Addressed “Cousin Annie:”. Hollidaysburg, Nov. 14th 1863. Three 4to pages on one folding folio leaf of “Office of Internal Revenue, Seventeenth Assessment District, Pennsylvania” stationery. Each page approximately 10 x 7 ¾”. Two horizontal and vertical creases, some wear, offsetting, occasional soiling, a few marginal tears. Very good. In this letter Dean gives his cousin some constructive criticism about her article “Hospital Sketch” (it is unclear if this was ever published): “Yours of the 9th with “Hospital Sketch” enclosed is received. It is admirable, and O! how welcome. I couldn’t put anything in my paper more interesting to its Readers. Will you permit me Annie to make a suggestion, not a criticism? There is an entire absence of the narrative or historical feature in the sketch. You assume that Your Readers know too much. For example the “Kentucky Solder Boy.” The description of the “sick bed scene” is complete, nothing could be better, but the first questions ar-ising [sic] in the minds of the Readers are: What ailed him? How long had he been under your care? What kind of a home did he leave in Kentucky? Under what circumstances did he leave it? What kind of boy was he? Had he black hair and eyes, or light hair and blue eyes?...” Bell was a nurse in Union hospitals #1 and #8 (this letter was addressed at the end “Miss Annie Bell Genl. Hospital No. 1 Nashville Tenn”); she is most famous for the popular photo of her attending two wounded soldiers in a hospital (this was sold as a carte de visite by the U. S. Sanitary Commission).