[3] In 1861, at the beginning of the Civil War, when Bigelow was six years old, his father was appointed United States consul in Paris, and subsequently (1865) Minister to France, and Poultney was sent to a Potsdam preparatory school.

His friendship and correspondence with the Kaiser continued throughout their lives, though their relations became somewhat more reserved just before World War I as a result of some of the opinions expressed in Bigelow's articles.

For reasons of health, he took a two-year leave from studies, sailing for the Orient, which left him shipwrecked off the coast of Japan.

He was a voluminous correspondent with the leading figures of the day, including Roger Casement, Henry George, Mark Twain, Geraldine Farrar, Percy Grainger, Frederic Remington, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Israel Zangwill and George S. Viereck.

In 1930, at the age of 74, he noted that "it's hell to live so long", but still made annual trips to visit the former Kaiser at Doorn.

There was a heated and immediate response from then Secretary of War William Howard Taft, as well as a significant back and forth in the press.