The digitized content of the E. M. (Ellwyn Miller) Bails Collection of Letters, 1864-1959 consists of a letter belonging to E. M. Bails. The letter was written by Homer Lyman (H. L.) Bosworth describing Abraham Lincoln’s attendance at a church service in Washington, D.C., during the Civil War.

E. M. Bails was from Rockford, Illinois. He attended Oberlin College in the 1930s and would later live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. H. L. Bosworth (1834-1924) was from Otis, Massachusetts. Bosworth worked as a clerk in the Fifth Auditor’s Office of the U.S. Treasury Department in Washington, D. C. during the Civil War.

The digitized content contains a letter and its envelope. The letter is from H. L. Bosworth to his cousin Mary, written on August 6, 1864. The letter describes a church service at the Second Presbyterian Church. The letter details Lincoln’s arrival in the middle of the church service, Bosworth’s hopes for Lincoln’s reelection, and personal matters such as matrimony and a sick family member. Bosworth also mentioned the training of government department clerks as reserve Union soldiers.

The Illinois History and Lincoln Collections unit at the University of Illinois Library manages the physical items of the Bails, E. M. Collection of Letters, 1864-1959 (MS 1000). The collection was partially digitized in 2024. For more information, contact an archivist at ihlc@library.illinois.edu.