She came to national attention during the Civil War for her writing under the pen name Olivia in the Washington Chronicle and Philadelphia Press.

When her husband became a part-owner of the Keokuk, Iowa, Daily Whig (later renamed the Gate City), they moved westward.

[1] After she wrote an angry letter to the Washington Chronicle in support of women being employed by the government, amid criticism of the female clerks replacing men sent off to war, she was hired to write for the paper.

[1][2][3] Her column was unusual for a female journalist of the period for its incisive political commentary, although it also covered society and fashion.

[1] While writing for the Chronicle, Briggs became the first female press correspondent to report directly from the White House, and she became close to the Lincoln family.

[5] She was able to report from the White House throughout Ulysses S. Grant's presidency, but was barred for unclear reasons once Rutherford B. Hayes took office in 1877.

[2] In 1882, Briggs was elected as the founding president of the Woman's National Press Association, though she also stopped writing regularly for newspapers that year.