William E. Vandemark to Walt Whitman, 31 July 1863

About This Item

Title: William E. Vandemark to Walt Whitman, 31 July 1863
Date: July 31, 1863
Creator(s): William E. Vandemark
Whitman Archive ID: tex.00128
Source: Walt Whitman Collection, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin. The transcription presented here is derived from Drum Beats: Walt Whitman's Civil War Boy Lovers, ed. Charley Shively (San Francisco, California: Gay Sunshine Press, 1989), 204. 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 Tim Jackson Vanessa Steinroetter Kathryn Kruger Nick Krauter
Cite this page: Vandemark, William E.. "William E. Vandemark to Walt Whitman, 31 July 1863." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 04 December 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
Source File: tex.00128.xml (TEI)

Friend witman

I1 now take the plesure of fulfilling my promace of writing to yo hoping to find yo en Joying good hlth I am not very well i am worse now than wen i got out of bed i tore my wound acoming home the hole is a bout half an inch square I hante ben noware sence i have been home i have had the docter and he ordered me to bathe in sider soaky i will hef to have my furlow exstended I would have written be fore but i was not able to do it yo must exscuse me—

the crops look much better here than they do in washington I find a grate many that donte know me when i arrived in york my cosin was thare and he brought me to my home it has ben rainy ever since I have been home—

give my love to the boys in ward B I will be back Just as soon as i am able to come

No more at present Good by answer by return mail from a friend and ever shall be

Notes

1. William E. Vandemark, a private in Company I of the 120th New York Infantry, was wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 3, 1863. Whitman noted that Vandemark was placed in "bed 39-Ward B" at Armory Square Hospital, and Whitman may have written a letter to Vandemark's sister Sarah in Accord, New York (Edward F. Grier, ed., Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts [New York: New York University Press, 1984], 2:644). Vandemark returned home on furlough and was briefly transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps during the summer of 1864 before returning to his regiment. He was killed on a skirmish line during the charge on Fort Davis at Petersburg, Virginia, on September 28, 1864. [back]