Walt Whitman by Alexander Gardner, ca. 1863 - 1864

On December 16, 1862, Whitman, while poring over the lists of wounded at Fredericksburg printed in the New York Herald, spotted the name of his brother George, a lieutenant in the 51st New York Infantry. Whitman rushed to the front, searching the hospitals in Falmouth, Virginia, across the Rappahannock River from the Fredericksburg battlefield. He was met by grisly scenes of human carnage—dead bodies laid out on stretchers and “a heap of amputated feet, legs, arms, hands, &c., a full load for a one-horse cart” ( Memoranda During the War , p. 6). He found George alive and well, having suffered only a superficial facial wound, but Whitman was nevertheless determined to go to Washington, D.C., to volunteer in the military hospitals.

Not long after arriving in the capital, Whitman sat for this session with Alexander Gardner, who had made his name months earlier photographing the dead at Antietam. In an inscription, Whitman identifies this photograph as "taken from life 1863 | war time Washington | D C." He referred to this as "the best picture of all," and recalls a reporter writing about it that "Whitman had been photographed in his night-dress," a comment that Whitman said made Gardner "fiery mad" (Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Sunday, August 12, 1888). This is no doubt the photo Whitman had in mind when he wrote in an 1869 Washington Chronicle article about the best portraits of himself, and noted "Mr. Gardiner [sic], on Seventh street . . . has a capital photo." Late in his life, Whitman described the photo as having "Almost the old professor look" (Monday, March 25, 1889). Whitman said that Thomas Eakins preferred this photo to all others: "Eakins likes it—says it is the most powerful picture of me extant—always excepting his own, to be sure" (Wednesday, June 27, 1888). Looking at the photo, Whitman mused, "How well I was then!—not a sore spot—full of initiative, vigor, joy—not much belly, but grit, fibre, hold, solidity. Indeed, all through those years—that period—I was at my best—physically at my best, mentally, every way" (Thursday, June 28, 1888).

For more information on Alexander Gardner, see "Notes on Whitman's Photographers."