Louisa Van Velsor Whitman to Walt Whitman, [4–5 December 1863]

 duk.00431.001.jpg 5 Dec. 18 '63  duk.00431.005.jpg  duk.00431.006.jpg good bye again your mother LW19

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Notes

• 1.

  This letter dates to December 4–5, 1863. Louisa Van Velsor Whitman began composing the letter on Friday evening, December 4, but she did not complete it until the following morning or afternoon. Richard M. Bucke dated this letter to December 5, 1863. Clarence Gohdes and Rollo G. Silver dated the letter to December 4, 1863 (Faint Clews & Indirections: Manuscripts of Walt Whitman and His Family [Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1949], 187–190). Edwin Haviland Miller agreed (Walt Whitman, The Correspondence [New York: New York University Press, 1961–77], 1:189, 374).

  Walt Whitman had departed Brooklyn on December 3 (a Thursday) to return to Washington. Louisa began composing the first part of this letter (numbered "1") on December 4, 1863, and she conveyed to Walt a detailed account of the "particulars of Andrews death," from Walt's departure through his brother's decease. Andrew Jackson Whitman died on Thursday afternoon, his body was brought to the Portland Avenue home on Thursday evening, and part one of Louisa's letter—composed Friday evening and covering four pages—closes with Andrew's body lying in his coffin on Friday afternoon in the Portland Avenue house. Louisa proclaimed herself "composed and ca[lm?]." The second part of the letter (numbered "2") was written later that Friday evening or Saturday morning, and Louisa asked Walt to write to Hannah Whitman Heyde (Walt's sister in Vermont) and informed Walt of Mrs. Brown's kindness. Part two of the letter concludes. The fifth page is divided into two sections by a line across the page, but the section below the line does not follow immediately in reading order.

  Louisa resumed writing on Saturday morning or early afternoon after she realized that Thomas Jefferson "Jeff" Whitman planned to inform Walt about an episode from the night before, which she did not intend to include in her letter. The night before, Jesse Whitman, Walt's brother, threatened to whip Manahatta, Jeff and Martha Mitchell "Mattie" Whitman's three-year-old daughter. Mattie confronted Jesse, and Louisa eventually calmed Jesse down. Louisa resumed her letter on page six (numbered part "3") with the intent to offer her account for what she feared would be a more inflammatory account were Jeff to write. According to Louisa, Jesse had called Mattie "very bad names" and looked "very wild for a while." Louisa blamed Jesse's outburst on seeing his brother Andrew's corpse. Jeff may have been temporarily assuaged by having his mother inform Walt about Jesse's behavior, but both Jeff and Mattie later sent Walt alternate accounts of Jesse's behavior. After reaching the bottom of page six, Louisa turned the page and continued her letter on the bottom quarter of the previous page (page 5), adding a line to divide the page into two sections. Unable to complete the letter in the available space, she then selected another sheet of paper and brought the letter to a close on the seventh page. The part numbers are in Louisa's hand, and they clarify the intended reading order of the letter. The transcription is presented in order of composition and an implied order of reading.

  The letter's opening tone seems deliberately measured to manage unspeakable sorrow and to elide Jesse's hellish outburst, from which Louisa would prefer to spare Walt. Faced with Jeff's anger, she did her best to manage the reshaping of the letter even as its physical layout begins to reveal her mental and emotional strain.

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• 2. Andrew Jackson Whitman (1827–1863) was Walter Whitman, Sr., and Louisa Van Velsor Whitman's son, and Walt Whitman's brother. Andrew developed a drinking problem that contributed to his early death, leaving behind his wife Nancy McClure Whitman, who was pregnant with son Andrew, Jr., and their two sons, George "Georgy" and James "Jimmy." For more on Andrew, see Martin G. Murray, "Bunkum Did Go Sogering," Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 10:3 (1993), 142–148. [back]
• 3. Mary Elizabeth (Whitman) Van Nostrand (1821–1899) was the oldest daughter of Louisa Van Velsor Whitman and Walter Whitman, Sr., and Walt Whitman's younger sister. She married Ansel Van Nostrand, a shipwright, in 1840, and they subsequently moved to Greenport, Long Island. They raised five children: George, Fanny, Louisa, Ansel, Jr., and Mary Isadore "Minnie." See Jerome M. Loving, ed., "Introduction," Civil War Letters of George Washington Whitman (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1975), 10–11. [back]
• 4. Nancy McClure Whitman was the widowed wife of Andrew Jackson Whitman. For the identification of McClure as Nancy's maiden name and information on Andrew's wife and children, see Jerome M. Loving, ed., "Introduction," Civil War Letters of George Washington Whitman (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1975), 12, n. 32; 13–14. [back]
• 5. Martha Mitchell Whitman (1836–1873), known as "Mattie," was the wife of Thomas Jefferson "Jeff" Whitman, Walt Whitman's brother. She and Jeff had two daughters, Manahatta and Jessie Louisa. In 1868, Mattie and her daughters moved to St. Louis to join Jeff, who had moved there in 1867 to assume the position of Superintendent of Water Works. Mattie suffered a throat ailment that would lead to her death in 1873. For more on Mattie, see Randall H. Waldron, "Whitman, Martha ("Mattie") Mitchell (1836–1873)," ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). See also Randall H. Waldron, ed., Mattie: The Letters of Martha Mitchell Whitman (New York: New York University Press, 1977), 1–26. [back]
• 6. The baby is Jeff and Mattie Whitman's daughter, Jessie Louisa, who was born on June 17, 1863. [back]
• 7. Thomas Jefferson Whitman (1833–1890), known as "Jeff," was the son of Louisa Van Velsor Whitman and Walter Whitman, Sr., and Walt Whitman's favorite brother. In early adulthood he worked as a surveyor and topographical engineer. In the 1850s he began working for the Brooklyn Water Works, at which he remained employed through the Civil War. In 1867 Jeff became Superintendent of Water Works in St. Louis and became a nationally recognized name in civil engineering. For more on Jeff, see "Whitman, Thomas Jefferson (1833–1890)." [back]
• 8. George "Georgy" Whitman was the son of Walt Whitman's brother Andrew Jackson Whitman and Andrew's wife Nancy McClure Whitman. For more on Andrew's family, see Jerome M. Loving, ed., "Introduction," Civil War Letters of George Washington Whitman (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1975), 13–14. [back]
• 9. Jesse Whitman (1818–1870) was the first-born son of Louisa Van Velsor Whitman and Walter Whitman, Sr. He suffered from mental illness that included threats of violence for several years. For a short biography of Jesse, see Robert Roper, "Jesse Whitman, Seafarer," Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 26:1 (Summer 2008), 35–41. [back]
• 10. The Brown family began boarding in the same house as the Whitmans on Portland Avenue, Brooklyn in April 1860. The relationship between the Browns and Thomas Jefferson "Jeff" Whitman's family was often strained, but the Browns remained in the Portland Avenue house for five years. Louisa Van Velsor Whitman maintained a cordial relationship with the Browns after Jeff and his wife Martha Mitchell "Mattie" Whitman departed for St. Louis. Years later Louisa called on Mrs. Brown and remarked to Walt Whitman, "if Jeff and matt knew i had been to see mrs Brown they would cross me off their books" (see her April 14, 1869 letter). [back]
• 11. George Washington Whitman (1829–1901) was the sixth child of Louisa Van Velsor Whitman and Walter Whitman, Sr., and ten years Walt Whitman's junior. George enlisted in the Union Army in 1861 and remained on active duty until the end of the Civil War. He was wounded in the First Battle of Fredericksburg (December 1862) and was taken prisoner during the Battle of Poplar Grove (September 1864). After the war, George returned to Brooklyn and began building houses on speculation, with a partner named Smith and later a mason named French. George eventually took up a position as inspector of pipes in Brooklyn and Camden. For more information on George, see "Whitman, George Washington." [back]
• 12. Cornell is James H. Cornwell, a friend of Andrew Whitman, who got him a job in North Carolina in 1863 building fortifications. Cornwell served as a judge in the Brooklyn City Hall and is listed as a lawyer in the 1870 census, which also identifies his wife as Mary (b. 1822?) (United States Census, 1870, Brooklyn, Kings, New York). He is mentioned in Whitman's "Scenes in a Police Justices' Court Room" (Brooklyn Daily Times, September 9, 1857). For more on the relationship between Andrew Jackson Whitman and Cornwell, see Martin G. Murray, "Bunkum Did Go Sogering," Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 10 (Winter 1993), 142–148. [back]
• 13. Hannah Louisa (Whitman) Heyde (1823–1908) was the youngest daughter of Walter Whitman, Sr., and Louisa Van Velsor Whitman. She resided in Burlington, Vermont, with her husband Charles Louis Heyde (ca. 1820–1892), a landscape painter. The relationship between Hannah and Charles was difficult and marred with quarrels and disease. Charles Heyde was infamous among the Whitmans for his offensive letters and poor treatment of Hannah. Walt Whitman said in his December 6, 1863, letter to George Washington Whitman that he had "written to Han" to notify her of Andrew's death. [back]
• 14. Louisa Van Velsor Whitman identified the undertaker as "oaks" and reported paying him $52 in her December 16–17, 1863 letter to Walt Whitman. Burdett S. Oakes, listed as an undertaker in the Brooklyn Directory (1863), was located at 268 Washington Street. [back]
• 15. Thomas Jefferson "Jeff" Whitman waited almost two weeks to write Walt Whitman, but he gave his account of Jesse Whitman's violent outburst in his December 15, 1863 letter to Walt. Jeff's letter has essentially the same order of events as Louisa's letter but provides harrowing detail. Manahatta, who was a bit over three years old, set off her uncle Jesse by "shoving a chair slowly toward the stove." Jesse threatened to "break her damn'd neck," and Jeff's wife Mattie confronted Jesse and told him "not to dare to lay his hand on her." Jesse then turned on Mattie: he threatened to "kill her," to "beat her brains out," and called her a "damed old bitch." See also Mattie's December 21, 1863 letter to Walt for another account (Randall H. Waldron, ed., Mattie: The Letters of Martha Mitchell Whitman [New York: New York University Press, 1971], 32–36). [back]
• 16. According to Jeff's December 15, 1863 letter to Walt, Mattie's back pain was so debilitating that she took an hour to make it from the basement up two floors to her room. Robert Roper has speculated that Mattie's debilitating back pain could have been associated with a congenital weakness or a damaged disk (Now the Drum of War [New York: Walker, 2008], 78). [back]
• 17. "Who is there in Brooklyn who doesn't know Walt. Whitman? Rough and ready, kind and considerate, generous and good, he was ever a friend in need, which is, after all, the only friend indeed. Walt is now in Washington, a volunteer nurse, going from hospital to hospital, and doing good every minute of his life. We hear of him at the bedside of the sick, the pallet of the wounded, the cot of the dying, and the pestilential ward. He writes letters home for disabled men, bathes the feverish brow of half-crazed soldiers, refreshes the parched lips of neglected sufferers, and attends with fidelity and tact to the thousand and one necessities of those who approach the gate of death. Surely such as he will find their reward here and hereafter" ("Personal," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 3, 1863, 3). Because Louisa Van Velsor Whitman just above refers to Jesse Whitman's having seen Andrew's body "last night," which was Friday, Louisa wrote this portion of her letter on Saturday, December 5. Therefore, "last night" in reference to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle sketch of Walt Whitman is an error: the article appeared on December 3. [back]
• 18. The word is most likely "packed," but it could also be "packet," in the common nineteenth-century sense of packet mail. [back]
• 19. Louisa Van Velsor Whitman (1795–1873) married Walter Whitman, Sr., in 1816; together they had nine children, of whom Walt Whitman was the second. For more information on Louisa and her letters, see Wesley Raabe, "'walter dear': The Letters from Louisa Van Velsor Whitman to Her Son Walt" and Sherry Ceniza, "Whitman, Louisa Van Velsor (1795–1873)." [back]