Bethuel Smith to Walt Whitman, 12 March 1875
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Bethuel Smith March 12 '75 (sent papers & a few lines April 21. '75)
Queensbury
March 12th/1875
Dear friend
I received your letter last weak 1 & was glad to hear from you I receivd some papers about three weaks ago last summer I was in brooklyn & I hunted for you but could not find you I mad up my mind that I would not hear from you again but I have I received your picture & I thought it looked natural it is night now & I was agoing to the villiage tomorrow So I thought I would write A few lines to you my halth is good & so is my family I have got three boys & one girl
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the way that I came to be in brooklyn I was A Canalin
it last summer & we went to new york new jersey brooklyn port morris newark new jersey &
several places but did not see any thing of walt in anny
of the places I talk some of canaling this summer but dont now
for sertain yet I wat you to tell me where Camden is
whether it is in the upper or lower part jersey or off towards newark so that if I do Come down there
I can find you I would like to see you verry much last
fall I bought A small farm & paid
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fifty dollas down & fifty this spring it makes
pretty hard time with me this spring I ame
owing some debts that I dont no
whether I can pay them or not this spring one of my horses is so lame that I cant
work him & I have every thing to buy I have got one cow & the two sheep that is all of my stock
youre letters was directed rite
the two firts years of my mairage
my wife was sick the most of the time so it used up what money that I had then but her health has
ben verry well
sence then
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Bethuel Smith
ther was so much son this winter that it has ben bad gitting aroung in this part of the cuntry the snow is about 4 feat deap now in the woods but not so deep in the fealds I like your peaces in the paper verry much I am to pay four hundred dollars for 39 3/4 acres of land A small house & barn on it I dont now as I can think of anny more to write at present So good buy for this time
this is from Bethuel Smith your friendThis pictur was taken about nine years ago2
Correspondent:
Bethuel Smith (1841–1893), a New York native,
was the son of Christopher Smith (1801–1871), a farmer, and Maria Smith (1811–1887).
Bethuel Smith served in the Union Army—Company F, Second U.S. Cavalry—during the Civil War.
Smith was wounded in 1863 and taken to Armory Square Hospital in Washington, D. C., where he met Whitman.
Smith wrote to Whitman on September 17, 1863, from the U.S. General Hospital
at Carlisle, Pennsylanvia, "I left the armory hospital in somewhat of A hurry."
He expected, he explained on September 28, 1863,
to rejoin his regiment shortly, and was stationed near Washington when he wrote
on October 13, 1863. He wrote on December 16, 1863, from Culpeper, Virginia, that he
was doing provost duty, and on February 28, 1864,
he was in a camp near Mitchell Station, Virginia, where "the duty is verry
hard." He was wounded again on June 11 (so his parents reported to Whitman on
August 29, 1864), was transported to
Washington, and went home on furlough on July 1. He returned on August 14 to
Finley Hospital, where, on August 30, 1864, he
wrote to Whitman: "I would like to see you verry much, I have drempt of you
often & thought of you oftener still." He expected to leave the next day for
Carlisle Barracks to be mustered out, and on October 22,
1864, he wrote to Whitman from Queensbury, New York. When his parents
communicated with Whitman on January 26,
1865, Bethuel was well enough to perform tasks on the farm. Smith
recovered from his injuries and went on to marry Lois E. Chadwick Smith (1845–1911).
The couple had six children. Smith was one
of the soldiers to whom Whitman wrote in the 1870s; see Whitman's letter to
Bethuel Smith, December 1874.