This collection contains 4 letters (12 pages) that W. F. Farrington wrote to his wife Margaret in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, while volunteering with the United States Christian Commission in Alexandria, Virginia, in June 1865. Farrington discussed his work at Sickles Hospital, where he held religious services and distributed clothing to sick soldiers, including some who were close to death. He also expressed his distaste for Alexandria and his desire to return home. In his letters of June 15, 1865, and June 22, 1865, he described his visits to Mount Vernon, the Bull Run battlefield, and Fort Ellsworth.
Internal evidence suggests that the author of these letters, "W. F. Farrington," who worked for the United States Christian Commission at Sickles Hospital in Alexandria, Virginia, in mid-June 1865, is Methodist minister William F. Farrington (1800-1888).
William F. Farrington was born on September 7, 1800, the son of William Farrington and Hannah Freeman, and became a Methodist minister in 1829. Around 1842, he became pastor of Chestnut Street Methodist Church in Portland, Maine; from 1864-1866, he led the Methodist Episcopal Church in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Farrington was married three times; his wives included Mary Ann Bolton and Margaret P. Skillings (m. March 25, 1863). William F. Farrington died on December 26, 1888.
