Four days after his article was publised in the Springfield Republican, Colonel Rice wrote to the Bensons.

Springfield, Massachusetts
Nov. 28, 1886

My Dear Mr. and Mrs. Benson:

When I was at your house in October and we talked of the time 25 years ago when you and your neighbors about Sudley Church had succored the wounded of the Union army left upon the battlefield after Bull Run, you suggested, in answer to my inquiry how that kindness could be repaid, that nothing would be more welcome than some aid in paying the debt for 200 dollars with which your little church was burdened, and I promised to do something about it.

The coming of Thanksgiving week reminded me of that pledge, and four days ago I caused to be published in the Springfield Republican the story of the good that you and your friends did us whom you counted as enemies in the old war days, and expressed a wish that enough money might be contributed in this city to pay off the whole of that debt. The result is that 235 dollars have been paid into me and I sent the amount yesterday drawn in money orders upon the post office at Manassas. Let it be used to free the church of debt and if more than enough for that, I know the church can find some use for it.

Perhaps those who have made up this gift would prefer that it be conveyed without further waste of words, for our Northern people are practical to a fault, and little given to effusive expression of their better sentiment. But my personal interest in the matter is so great that you can surely indulge me in saying a little more.

This money has been paid in four days, without other solicitation than a simple suggestion in a newspaper. Most of it was handed me in person, accompanied by the fewest possible words, and often by only a pressure of the hand. Some came in letters, generally laconic to the last degree, but all breathing a genuine desire to requite a kindness too long unheeded. As you will see by the copies which I send with this, the G. A. R. was also active in the good cause, and I enclose newspaper accounts showing its participation, as well as the general history of the pleasant affair.

Their are seventy-nine contributors to the fund, as shown by the accompanying list, 27 of them being veteran soldiers of the Union army. They are of varying creeds and politics, and from all ranks and conditions of life, but like England's greeting to her Prince Royal's Danish Bride-

Saxon and Norman and Dane are we
But all of us Danes in our welcome of thee

The message which the gift carries to you two, the Sudley Church and to the Southern people, is that the givers are all your friends, and if I were permitted to voice the dearest wish which this incident awakens in their heart, I believe it would be that it might dispel the last doubt, if such there be, in the minds of the Southern people, of a complete and final reconciliation between the North and the South.

In behalf of all who have joined in this tender of aid and of thousands of others who would gladly have done so, I wish you your neighbors and your church such abundant prosperity and happiness in the future as will in some measure make amends for the suffering of the past.

Most Sincerly Yours,
J. L. Rice

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