Brooklyn, N. Y.
May 12th 1863
Dear Bro. Walt,
Mr. Lane recd. your letter this morning1 and would have probably answered it to-day but has had to go out in the country (to Jamaica) to make some arrangements for a visit that the Common Council and Water Board intend to make over the works. In his behalf I return thanks for your kindness as regards Horace.2 Mr Lane however has heard from him He was in the thickest of the fight but was not harmed although he had some pretty narrow escapes He says that some of the rebs took pretty good aim at him
Dear Walt, your letter has given me a great deal of pleasure, so it has Mr Lane in regard to Hooker and his movements.3 I am so glad to understand that he is going in again. Tis sure that he could not have been badly whipped or he could not have done that, And Lee as you say must have been badly hurt or he would never let Hooker come across the river without molestation I wish you could send me letters oftener. I like to get your ideas of matters and also hear what the people down in Wash'tn think. Twas rather blue here for a few days, almost every one thought it was another bad defeat.
We are all thriving as usual. Mother is about the same as ever, somewhat lame with the rheumatism but not much the rest are all well. Andrew had a letter yesterday from Jim Cornwell,4 enclosing him $50 and telling him to come immediately to Suffolk,5 at the bottom was a transportation order from Frank Spinola.6 Cornwell said if he did not come to give the money to his (Cornwells) wife, but to come sure if possible. I think Andrew very foolish not to go, as Ruggles7 says he certainly will never get well of his throat here. Andrew was to come for me and we were going to see the Dr. to-day abt his going but he did not come and mother thinks that he has concluded not to go. I think it would be much better for him to go I think it would be better for his health, dont you? They must intend to give him a pretty good show or they would not send "surely come" for him. We do not here from either Han or George do you? Hattie is the same as ever ever wanting to be out doors and wonders if Uncle Walt will never come and take her out on "Ft. Greene."8 She seems to remember you first rate and George too. What abt the pictures, shall I send them? The letter does not come out in the Eagle and probably will not but to make again sure I will call to-morrow and look over their file for some weeks back to see if I have possibly overlooked it. All send their love
Affectionately Jeff
Notes
- 1. Jeff refers to Walt's
letter to Moses Lane from May 11, 1863. Lane
(1823–1882) served as chief engineer of the Brooklyn Water Works from 1862
to 1869. He later designed and constructed the Milwaukee Water Works and served
there as city engineer. Like Jeff Whitman, he collected money from his employees
and friends for Walt's hospital work. Lane sent Whitman $15.20 in his letter
of January 26, 1863, and later various sums which
Whitman acknowledged in letters from February 6,
1863, May 26, 1863, and September 9, 1863. In his letter of May 27, 1863, Lane pledged $5 each month. In an
unpublished manuscript in the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, New York
Public Library, Whitman wrote, obviously for publication: "I have distributed
quite a large sum of money, contributed for that purpose by noble persons in
Brooklyn, New York, (chiefly through Moses Lane, Chief Engineer, Water Works
there.)" Lane assisted Whitman in other ways as well (see Whitman's letters from
December 29, 1862, and February 13, 1863). He was so solicitous of Whitman's personal
welfare that on April 3, 1863, he sent through
Jeff $5 "for your own especial benefit." [back]
- 2. Some casualties from
the Twentieth Connecticut Volunteers were in Washington hospitals, and Walt had
promised "to make immediate inquiry" to determine whether Horace Tarr, the
nephew of Moses Lane, was among them (Edwin Haviland Miller, ed., The Correspondence [New York: New York University Press,
1961–77], 1:99). [back]
- 3. Walt had advised: "You
there north must not be so disheartened about Hooker's return to this side of
the Rappahannock and supposed failure. The blow struck at Lee & the rebel
sway in Virginia, & generally at Richmond & Jeff Davis, …is in my
judgment the heaviest and most staggering they have yet got from us, & has
not only hit them nearer where they live than all Maclellan ever did, but all
that has been levelled at Richmond during the war" (see Whitman's letter to
Moses Lane from May 11,
1863). [back]
- 4. James H. Cornwell was a
first lieutenant in the 158th New York Regiment of Infantry. He was the
quartermaster in charge of building fortifications at New Bern, North Carolina
(Jerome M. Loving, ed., Civil War Letters of George Washington
Whitman [Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1975], 96, n. 5). [back]
- 5. As Loving notes, "it
remains somewhat of a mystery as to why Andrew was beckoned only as far as
Suffolk." Perhaps Andrew was to travel to Suffolk by boat, at which point
Cornwell could have met him and conducted him to New Bern, North Carolina, by
land. Andrew never made the trip (166). [back]
- 6. See Jeff's letter to
Walt from April 16, 1860. Frank Spinola, a newly
appointed brigadier general, was the first commander of the 158th New York
Regiment of Infantry. [back]
- 7. The Brooklyn physician
Edward Ruggles (1817?–1867) befriended the Whitman family and became
especially close to Jeff and Mattie. Late in life, Ruggles lost interest in his
practice and devoted himself to painting cabinet pictures called "Ruggles Gems"
(Edwin Haviland Miller, ed., The Correspondence [New
York: New York University Press, 1961–77], 1:90, n. 85). [back]
- 8. See Jeff's letter to
Walt from March 21, 1863. [back]