Higginson, Thomas Wentworth Storrow

Higginson, Thomas Wentworth Storrow (1823-1911), American writer, clergyman, and soldier, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. From 1847 to 1850 he was a Unitarian minister, but in the latter year, moved by intense abolitionist conviction, he resigned his pastorate to run, unsuccessfully, for the United States Congress. At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Higginson enlisted as a captain, and from 1862 to 1864 he served as colonel in command of the first black regiment in the US Army. Army Life in a Black Regiment (1870) is Higginson's vivid account of his Civil War experiences.

After the war he distinguished himself as an advocate of the political rights of women. He became a confidante and mentor of the American poet Emily Dickinson. After her death he edited her Poems (2 vols., 1890-1891).