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Literary Manuscripts

Integrated Catalog of Walt Whitman's Literary Manuscripts

Fiftyfirst Newyork City Veterans

  • Whitman Archive Title: 51st New York Veterans
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.00929
  • Repository: Catalog of the Walt Whitman Literary Manuscripts in The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839-1919, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
  • Box: 32
  • Folder: 1864, Oct. 29, "Fifty-First New York Veterans," New York Times, Manuscript draft
  • Series: Literary File
  • Date: 1864
  • Genre: prose
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: A partial draft of "Fifty-first New-York City Veterans," which appeared in the 29 October 1864 issue of the New-York Times . The verso of this draft includes snippets of prose, some of which Whitman included in various Civil War writings. The "Case of Catholic priest & altar &c at side of dying Irish boy" was included in Memoranda During the War (1876). The notes on female nurses during the war were used in "Female Nurses for Soldiers," first published under the heading, "A Few Words about Female Nurses for Soldiers," in "The Soldiers," New-York Times (6 March 1865). This prose piece was reprinted in both Memoranda During the War (1876) and Specimen Days & Collect (1882).


  • Whitman Archive Title: [some interesting items of 51st]
  • Whitman Archive ID: yal.00185
  • Repository: Catalog of the Walt Whitman Literary Manuscripts in The Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 57
  • Date: 1864
  • Genre: prose
  • Physical Description: 16 leaves, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32
  • Content: A notebook on the 51st New York Veterans in which Whitman recorded notes on George W. Whitman and other soldiers in that regiment, including their involvement in the war and snippets of biographical information. While significant passages from this notebook cannot be found verbatim in Whitman's published work, it is clear that these notes contributed to Whitman's Civil War writings, including "Fifty-first New-York City Veterans," New-York Times , 29 October 1864; "Fifty-first New-York Volunteers," New-York Times , 24 January 1865; and "Return of a Brooklyn Veteran," Brooklyn Daily Union , 16 March 1865.


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