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Nicholas D. Palmer to Walt Whitman, 24 June 1865

About This Item

  • Title: Nicholas D. Palmer to Walt Whitman, 24 June 1865
  • Date: June 24, 1865
  • Creator(s): Nicholas D. Palmer
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.00858
  • Source: The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Transcribed from digital images or a microfilm reproduction of the original item. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Contributors to digital file: Elizabeth Lorang Blake Bronson-Bartlett Vanessa Steinroetter Heidi Bean
  • Cite this page: Palmer, Nicholas D.. "Nicholas D. Palmer to Walt Whitman, 24 June 1865." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 04 December 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.00858.xml (TEI)
 loc.00858.001.jpg Camp Near Louisville June 24th, 1865 Mr. Whitman  
  Dear Friend

I concluded I would talk a few words to you through this instrument. I am well and hope the safe arrival of this may find you the same. There is not much talk of theVetterans getting out yet: if you have any thing in the way of advice to give concerning my imployment when I am Discharged[illegible] talk plain to me Mr. Whitman. I have been about the world more perhaps than you would imagine there are a great many  loc.00858.002.jpg [illegible] cruel turns and there[] a variety of ways of making a liveing. Leaving hard work out of the Books, and I have thought that [illegible] were bigger fools than me making a living very Easy although I admit my Education is Limited. Name any thing you Please and if I Do not Propose to accept: that is as far as it will Go I will blow on no one. What about Such houses as we were talking about and [illegible] if it Should be made agreeable for me to take up Lodgeing in Close Proximity with yours. I Should be Pleased in the Superlative Degree. Please write amediately​ after you receive this and Give me Some  loc.00858.003.jpgadvice No matter what sort. I conclude.

Hopeing to hear from you soon. Until then.

I remain your Friend  
 as Ever Nicholas D. Palmer Co. E. 80th Regt. 0.1.1.[illegible]  
 1st Brig 2nd Division  
 15th A[illegible] 1  loc.00858.004.jpg

Notes

  • 1. This letter includes a note by Whitman following the closer that reads, "June 25th '65—I have rec'd many curious letters in my time from one & another [unclear] persons (women & others) who have been reading "Leaves of Grass"—& some singular ones from soldiers—but never before one of this description—I keep it as a curiosity. The writer was one of the soldiers in Sherman army last of [unclear]—one of hundreds I talked with, & occasionaly showed some little kindness to—I met him, talked with him some,—he came one rainy night to my room & stopt with me. I am completely in the dark as to 'what such houses as we were talking about,' are— 
     upon the whole not to be answered—(& yet I itch to satisfy my curiosity as to what this young man can really have taken me for.)"     [back]
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