Enclosed a little piece the whole idea of which I got from you—as you see. It is in the Critic of Sept. 272—Dry and warm and often oppressive weather here—a long spell—My lameness seems permanent like—I have promised to write a War Hospital Article for Century to supplement their forthcoming swell [of] war narratives by Grant & the rest.3
William, I wonder if you or Charles Eldridge couldn't help me to something there from the Medical Bureau—summaries, or statistics or any information—who do you know in the Surgeon Gen[eral]'s office?4
Walt WhitmanCorrespondent:
William Douglas O'Connor
(1832–1889) was the author of the grand and grandiloquent Whitman pamphlet
The Good Gray Poet: A Vindication, published in 1866.
For more on Whitman's relationship with O'Connor, see Deshae E. Lott, "O'Connor, William Douglas (1832–1889)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998).