Rome, May 27 1869.

Hon. Geo. P. Marsh.

Page 1

My dear friend.

We all rejoiced to learn from your favor of the 24 that Mrs. Marsh had not suffered on her way home as far as Brest, and that you like my study for the large picture, of the President's figures; for a long time I have heard nothing that has cheered me so much as your brave words. On Monday next I send to the Exhibition at Munich, my group of Longfellow & his daughter, also a portrait of General Sherman: I hope you may see them. The Ladies of my family request me to express their

thanks for your note to the Consul at Stuttgard, to which I beg to join mine.

With a thousand pleasant memories of your kindnesses to me and mine.

I am SincerelyYour friend.Geo. P. A. Healy

P.S.

We hope to pass some years in Rome. And expect a sitting from the Pope before we go to Venice a week hence.

References in this letter:

General Willliam Tecumseh Sherman told Healy about a meeting held toward the end of the war, when he, General Ulysses S.Grant, and Admiral David D. Porter met with President Lincoln on board the River Queen to prepare for the coming peace. Healy began a large group portrait based on this incident in America and completed it in his studio in Rome in 1868.

Healy knew the American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) from his time in Boston and painted his portrait with his daughter Edith while they were visiting Rome.

William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) a Union general in the Civil War. After burning Atlanta on November 15, 1864, he led the famous march to the sea, destroying Savannah on Dec 21st.