The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Stephen K. Winant to Walt Whitman, May 1870
Date: May 1870
Whitman Archive ID: yal.00133
Source: Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. 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: Alex Kinnaman, Elizabeth Lorang, Kathryn Kruger, John Schwaninger, Nima Najafi Kianfar, Caterina Bernardini, Marie Ernster, Erel Michaelis, and Stephanie Blalock
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New York
May
1870
Mr Walter Whitman
Dear Sir
I have an application in for a Pension for a Wound received in action in front of Petersburgh on March the 25th 1865. My Discharge Papers are in the Hands of John P Hunt Attorney and Counsellor at Law 247 Broadway I wish you would do me the favor of of Looking up my Claim and Pushing it through for me as I have suffered a great Deal from the wound and am still suffering from it. I have Had the Best Doctors in New York to attend me but seem to do no good I have been sick for the Last Three months unable to do anything from cause of Wound. I Enclose You a Certificate from Dr Corson who attended me after I was first wounded and he has recently Examined it and I can show Certificates of Half a Dozen of the Best Doctors in the City and Staten Island Friend Whitman I Enlisted under the Name of James W Roberts in October for one year in the 88th N.Y. Infantry Co A Colonel Denis F Burke1 and was wounded in the Leg on the 25th of March in action in front of Petersburgh I wish you would write me on Receipt of this and Let me know if you can do anything for me and if you know anything of this John P Hunt and weather he is an authorized claim agent or not and about how Long Before my Claim will be settled by doing this favor for me you will Confer a Lasting favor
Yours truly
Stephen K Winant
435 West 32d Street Between 9 & 10th Avenue
New York City
Please return this Certificate
SKW.Correspondent:
Stephen K. Winant served as a Union Soldier in the U. S. Civil War,
enlisting under the name James W.
Roberts. There is record of a James W. Roberts serving in the 88th New York
Infantry, which was one of the regiments collectively known as "The Irish
Brigade" during the Civil War.
Notes:
1. Colonel Dennis F. Burke (1840–1893) served in the 88th New York Infantry (also known as the "Irish Brigade") during the U. S. Civil War. [back]