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I do not know but you think me rather neglectful in my writing to you but if you knew the pain that I

have in my head, the whole of the time you would not think hard of me.

Walt—I am sorry that I am as feeble, and that my friends and likewise my Doctor think that I never shall

lying in my pathway and I can not seem to remove them nor hide them from my mind, I have tried to look

I feel she has saved me, in the worst of my sickness she hardly left my room how often have I thought

But, my dear comrades, I will now tell you something about my own folks—home here there is quite a lot

of us—my father is not living—my dear mother is very well indeed for her age, which is 67—she is cheerful

Often they hit each other, then there is a time— My loving comrades, I am scribbling all this in my room

in my mother's house.

, & I pray God to bless you, my darling boys, & I send you all my love, & I hope it will be so ordered

My relations with the boys there in Washington had fatherly, motherly, brotherly intimations—touched

I don't seem to be able to stand it in the present condition of my body'" (3:110–111).

Brooklyn Nov 17, 1863 Dear friend I suppose Nelly has received a letter from me posting you up of my

last night, Trovatore —very, very good singing & acting— I feel to devote myself more to the work of my

I shall range along the high plateau of my life & capacity for a few years now, & then swiftly descend

, & the objects, &c of most, seem to me very flippant & shallow somehow since I returned this time— My

Dear comrade, I send you my love, & to William & Nelly, & remember me to Major [Hapgood] — Walt Walt

Dear Walt I am going to try and write you a few lines this morning, but you must overlook my poor composition

also my writing, for I am very weak and my mind is not as it was before I was sun stroke .

My Sister and also my friends are very anxious to see and to read your Leaves of Grass and I hope they

able to be proped up in bed and able to write to my true friend and comrade.

My Sister Mary says when I go back to war she shall write to you.

Your memory burns as bright as ever in my heart & allways will, thear is now doubt but some of my corrospondants

I will be thear on the last day of August, if I do not get my furlow extended, whitch I have the hopes

of, for I would most as leave come back to see my old friends as stay at home.

The Doctor that tens me hear wants me for to try and get my furlow extended, for he thinks that my leg

Dear Walter I am enjoying my self fine as well, I think, as any cripple can.

I do not know that I told you that both of my parents were dead but it is true and now Walt you will

be a second Father to me wont you, for my love for you is hardly less than my love for my natural parent

I think my papers will be in tomorrow certain.

I shall start as soon as my papers come.

My love to you and now Dear Father good by for the present.

My very dear Friend, Finally I find time and quiet to write you—I beseech you be not angry at what may

on the other hand, to affirm that during this time I had thought it better, influenced, perhaps, by my

duties incidental to my position.

I have just come from my Mother, who, together with my Father, desires to be kindly remembered to you

hopes in the future to have had you & my little girl with me then.

continues so—yesterday & last night was the hottest—still I slept sound, have good ventilation through my

when I woke up, a thing I never remember to have happened to me before, for I was not disturbed in my

own breakfast in my room & my dinner at a restaurant—I have a little spirit lamp, & always have a capital

on my hand, nor had any dressing for the last five days—Mother, I hope you get along with the heat,

it came right, & give him the men's thanks & my love— Mother, have you heard any thing from Han?

What a difference it is with me here—I tell you, Nat, my evenings are frequently spent in scenes that

a few hours a day at copying &c, occasionally write a newspaper letter, & make enough money to pay my

in my room, (have a little spirit lamp) & rub on free & happy enough, untrammeled by business, for I

make what little employment I have suit my moods—walk quite a good deal, & in this weather the rich

love to Fritschy, & Fred Gray—I desire both to write to me—Nat, you also, my dear comrade, & tell me

Friend witman I now take the plesure of fulfilling my promace of writing to yo hoping to find yo en Joying

good hlth I am not very well i am worse now than wen i got out of bed i tore my wound acoming home the

i have been home i have had the docter and he ordered me to bathe in sider soaky i will hef to have my

better here than they do in washington I find a grate many that donte know me when i arrived in york my

cosin was thare and he brought me to my home it has ben rainy ever since I have been home— give my love

have a favorable opportunity, by means of a visitor to the hospital, who is now sitting by the side of my

called upon me & given me a few trifles——— Dear friend, I wish you would say to Mrs Rice I send her my

the face of a friend,—I wish you would write me a good long letter, some of you my dear friends, as

a letter from home is very acceptable in hospital——— My diarrhea is still somewhat troublesome, yet I

please put a stamp on & write to me—Please give my love to the friends in the village & tell them I

Dear brother, I am here in Brooklyn, New York, spending a few weeks home at my mother's.

I am well & fat, eat my rations regular, & weigh about 200—so you see I am not very delicate.

But the greatest patriot in the family is my old mother.

My room is 456 Sixth street.

But my letters are still addrest care of Major Hapgood, paymaster U S A, Washington D C.

My thoughts are with you often enough, & I make reckoning when we shall one day be together again—yet

a letter was received by me April 28th, (very pretty written)—but I have not heard whether you got my

I enclosed in it an envelope with my address on, in hopes you would write to me.

There is no particular change in my affairs here—I just about manage to pay my way, with newspaper correspondence

My dearest comrade, I cannot, though I attempt it, put in a letter the feelings of my heart—I suppose

opinion that the 51st is still in Kentucky at or near where George last wrote, but of course that is only my

such a misfortune to have such sickness, & always do any thing for him that you can in reason—Mat, my

little room 394 L st., get my own breakfast there, had good tea this morning, & some nice biscuit, (

They are truly friends to me—I still get my dinner at a restaurant usually.

mind again before me— Mother, did you see my letter in the N Y Times of Sunday Oct 4?

soldier boys should ever call upon you, (as they are often anxious to have my address in Brooklyn,)

I was with him a good deal, & the old man & his wife have written me, & asked me my address in Brooklyn

They will make you cry—There is nothing new with my hospital doings—I was there yesterday afternoon &

, & the house smells clean, & the room too—my old room they just left every thing lay where it was, &

singers are so good—when I come home we'll all try to go — Mother, I am very well—have some cold in my

monday Monday evening My dear walt i was sorry my being so late last week with my letter caused you any

uneasiness if any thing was the matter with me more than common you would be advised of it my dear walter

to venture it rained here last night very hard) i am about as usual i have had rather bad pains in my

its fronting the north or south) not one word have i had from Jeff or matt or han or ma ry you are my

My journey home was very pleasant to me & what made it the more so (I suppose) was the anticipation of

once more being with my friends.

I arrived here on the 19th the joy of friends on my arrival I will not attempt to say anything about,

My mind is taken back to when I lay suffering in the Hospital & I have a particular feeling of gratitude

the helpless (when away from home) than to find a friend, one in whom we can confide & trust, as was my

letter from Bloom yesterday—but, before responding to it (which I will do soon) I must write to you, my

Every day or night I spend four, five, or six hours, among my sick, wounded, prostrate boys.

Some of my boys get well, some die.

, good stock, often mere boys, full of sweetness & heroism—often they seem very near to me, even as my

I make no bones of petting them just as if they were—have long given up formalities & reserves in my

I again take my pen in hand to write a few lines to you to let you know how I am a getting This makes

that Gettysburg Battle. he sais that it was awful, and that he never wants to see the like of it again My

health is verry good, and my leg dos still continue's to mend slowly—but verry slow, the Doctor has

I am enjoying my self as well as I can with my four legs but I cannot go about much yet I am a going

No more at present but good by and write soon with my love to you and all enquiring friends, I remain

My Dear Friend Walter, Your very kind and long looked for letter of Aug 1st came to hand on the 6th &

Now I will put in a word for myself my leg still continues to mend verry slow but I hope sure, and I

have ben enjoying my self as well as I could with my sore leg I have bin a way on a visit for a week

& I have enjoyed my sel[f] verry much (for a wounded soldier is something hear I tell you) for the people

a copperhead & a Reblle I would shoot the copperhead first, and to tell you the truth I am proud of my

see if they would reach you—I was very much disappointed when I went to Armory that evening to find my

Thuey, did you take the envelope you had with my address?

you need not mind ceremony—there is no need of ceremony between dear friends for that I hope we are, my

together again—good by, dear boy, from your true friend— Thuey, I enclose an envelope but will write my

be afraid, my darling comrade—it is little, but it may be some use—Thuey, you write to me just as you

My Dear Freind Walter.

It is with mutch pleasure that I take my pen in hand to inform you that I am well and that my leg is

I have had a good many of my young friends to see me.

My Father and Mother are well and send their respects to you for Mother says whoeve[r] did me a faivor

I expect that you still visit the Hospital if so give my respects to the boys I have nothing more to

I was in hopes that you would not hear of our Regts being in the fight untill you got my letter.

How my name came to be in the papers I cant see, as I was very careful not to report myself in the list

of wounded in my company, but I think Colonel Potter who saw the scratch on my face, must have aded

my name to the list little thinking I suppose how much uneasyness it would cause at home.

Jeff write me often, and give my love to all. George W.

mornin dated the 13 and was very glad to hear from yo i am not very well i have good dele of pain in my

away an then we must all sooner or later give up this world— i had a few lines from home this morning my

little girl is sick and i feeling bad to think that i cant see her now but my prays is that she may

start for elickazandry [Alexandria] to the convalesent camp if i could get to the city i could get my

discharge but i cant father i thank yo for seeing about my discriptave list for they owe me now six

Dear brother, You did not write any answer to my last two letters, now quite a while ago, still I will

I still remain here in Washington, finding just about work enough to pay my expenses.

he has returned from his furlough, he told me a few days ago he had written to you, & had sent you my

best respects—I told him he must never send my respects to you but always my love.

Dear friend Walt Not knowing what they were agoing to do with me until thursday last is my excuse for

Thursday I expected my dischar[g]e so that I could start Friday but on going to the office I found that

knew that they had gone up and when the truth was known he knew nothing about it thursday afternoon my

papers wer sent in to the ward for me to go before Bliss he examined me and told me I could have my

Sutler's and back (Walt it is useless for me to try to tell you how much i have missed you at night when my

lost] yesterday and was glad to heer from yo and yo were en Joying good helth as for me i am not well my

very slow the warm wether chafed me all to peces and now with all the rest i have got a large boil on my

left knee my famly is well my little girl has ben quite sick but is well agen— the wether has ben very

and came horn and kep hid 3 weeks thare is 30 dollars reward on him i think they had or to hang him my

morning, & was welcome, as any thing from you will always be, & the sight of your face welcomer than all, my

Lew, as to me & my affairs there is nothing very new or important—I have not succeeded in getting any

expenses—but it is my own fault, for I have not tried hard enough for any thing—the last three weeks

I have not felt very well—for two or three days I was down sick, for the first time in my life, (as

It is now about 3 o'clock, & I will go out & mail this letter, & then go & get my dinner—So good bye,

Don't mind my not answering them promptly, for you know what a wretch I am about such things.

girls, & about Mr Arnold —of course you won't forget Arthur, & always when you write to him send him my

But, my darling, it is a dreadful thing—you dont know these wounds, sicknesses &c—the sad condition in

evenings altogether at the hospitals—my day, often.

I like Washington very well (did you see my last letter in N Y Times of Oct 4, Sunday?)

there from Saturday night until Monday morning before any train left I dont think I ever was so sick in my

with your office I am in hopes you have recd it before this time I begun to think that your office & my

discharge had gone to the same place now I have got my papers I think you had ought to receive yours

I cant write any more this time my hand trembles so I can hardly write but I will try & do better next

time give my best respects to Mr & Mrs O Connor.

Of the O'Connors, Thomas Jefferson Whitman wrote on June 13, 1863: "I am real glad, my dear Walt, that

Dear sister, You have heard of my fortunes and misfortunes of course, (through my letters to mother and

Since I laid my eyes on dear brother George, and saw him alive and well—and since I have spent a week

The weather is perfect—I have had that in my favor ever since leaving home—yesterday and to-day it is

I write this in the place where I have my lodging room, 394 L street, 4th door above 14th street.

My Brooklyn boys were John Lowery, shot at Fredericksburgh, and lost his left forearm, and Amos H.

I have told my mother & sister about you all. I send my love to William.

Tell Charles Eldridge too I send him my love.

Nelly, I am writing this from my room at my mother's house.

My sister Martha is untiring, feeding & nursing him.

My brother Jeff is well—he is a noble young man & one to love.

I am glad to report that I enjoyed my Self finely and had a gay time.

I expected to be in Washington before this on my way Home to get my rights, if I dont get it I will not

play Tell Miss Felton that I never will forget theWatter cooler of Ward P. and as there are some of my

Friends that I have omited on account of names I hope you will as[k] Pardon in my behalf. tell Brown

My Love & best Wishes to all I will close Hoping to Here from you soon.

About what is called the Conscript Bill (an improper name) I hope and pray from the bottom of my heart

every man in the land—I would like to see the people embodied en-masse —I am very sure I shall see that my

name is in its place on the lists, and my body in the ranks, if they do it that way—for that will be

With my office-hunting, no special result yet. I cannot give up my Hospitals yet.

I never before had my feelings so thoroughly and (so far) permanently absorbed, to the very roots, as

The Hospitals still engross a large part of my time and feelings—only I don't remain so long and make

It comes from a bad cold, gathering I think in my head.

Things here are just the same with me, neither better nor worse—(I feel so engrossed with my soldiers

, I do not devote that attention to my office-hunting, which is needed for success.)

Jeff, you must give my best respects to Mr. and Mrs.

Buffalo— 12 Jan y 1863 Dear Sir, I am very sorry to be so late with my reply to your note, which was

You will see that I have dated my note from my known residence. With best hope, R. W.

My dear sir, I have been much interested in a letter from you to Mr.

Of the enclosed check, ten dollars of the amount is contributed by my sister, Mrs. G.W.

Briggs of Salem, to whom I read your letter, & ten dollars by my friend Edward Atkinson.

I hope you will continue in your good work, as I am sure from your letter, & from what my friend, Mr.

I wrote to Han yesterday, (before I received this letter of Heyde's), I wrote a short letter of my own

new ones, I could not find any one to do them as I wear them, & it would have cost such a price—& so my

they were too thick & more still because they were worse gone in than any I ever yet wore I think in my

life, especially the trowsers—wearing my big boots had caused the inside of the legs just above the

same as what I always wear, (pants pretty full,) so upon the whole all looks unusually good for me, my

yo and i was glad to here from yo i am not very well and have not ben for some time i have pain in my

head and breast i think the clorform that i have taken is the caus of it my hip is very painful to day

i was exasamend i think that i will go before the board in a day or two i may get my discharge i have

hurd that my ridgement is going home for the winter to recruit thair is only 17 men left inny more for

could get detailed in washington at some thing that i coud do i woud be very glad and would try to do my

not received the letter  I hope wen those few lines reach you they will find yo well i am quite well my

friday i was exazamend by the beast of dockters i would not go in the invalid corps so they send me to my

ridgement i am willing to go and try and do my duty thair and if the Rebs hit me a gen all rite i will

thair i have ben home sence i left Washington i wish yo would see dockter blis and have him to send my

write and let me know how yo are geting a long and how the boys is gets a long tel them i am going to my

Russell, which came to us through my sister Miss Stevenson.

is pleasant to know where one has excited an interest, & in asking you to acknowledge its receipt, my

My direction is to care of Charles P. Curtis, Boston. With regard, I am, Margaret S.

Dear friend, I am going to write you to ask any friends you may be in communication with for aid for my

Then I select the most needy cases & devote my time & services much to them.

hospitals, nothing but the mere hard routine, no time for tenderness or extras)—So I go round—Some of my

My brave young American soldiers—now for so many months I have gone around among them, where they lie

too near to each other, there is no time to lose, & death & anguish dissipate ceremony here between my

My dear Walt— You will find the article you sent will be in the Times of this morning, when it is published

My brother William sailed for Port Royal ten days ago—to be present at the attack on Charleston—if it

would be of any service to you in any way, I know he would be rejoiced to serve you, if you mentioned my

I got it, looked into it with wonder, and felt that here was something that touched on depths of my humanity

It is [my] sincere wish that Johny Makey will survive the operation and ultimately recover.

Yes my dear Brother, You have my friendship as fully as you can desire, and I hope we will meet again

Having nothing more of importance to communicate, I will conclude with my best wishes for your health

I have neglected it so long I suppose you thought I had quit forgotten you, but I can asure you my Dear

your will I should be very happy to keep up a coraspandenc Now I will try and give you an account of my

morning changed cars there fore Pittsburg arrived there about noon I went to the Soldiers home and got my

about two months before that so in the evening I took the cars again and the next morning I arrived at my

estimated 15,000 Majority for the Union that is the home vote the copperheads are completely played out My

& was verry glad to get them & always shall be I am well the toe is getting along verry fast I ware my

boots A little everry day I think in A few days I shall be able to join my regiment I hope so anyway

Washington for women I think friend walt I should like to Come & see you verry much I hope that I shall join my

so much want to see you, even if only for a couple of weeks—for I feel I must return here & continue my

I wonder why he didn't send me the Union with my letter in. I am disappointed at not getting it.

I sent Han [a] N Y Times with my last letter, & one to George too.

I thought I was cooler & more used to it, but the sight of some of them brought tears into my eyes—Mother

out with a long rough journey, all dirty & torn, & many pale as ashes, & all bloody—I distributed all my

is what they have eaten with Mat and I"; and again on October 8, 1863: "There is no doubt, Walt, in my

Since I last wrote you I have continued my hospital visitations daily or nightly without intermission

My dear friend, if you should be able to go, or if not able yourself give this to your sister or some

friend who will go—it may be that my dear boy & comrade is not so very bad, but I fear he is.

I send my thanks & love to yourself, your sister, husband, & the sisters Wigglesworth.

I have my log hut partly finished and should have had it completed long ago, but after I had cut the

As soon as he gets back, I shall apply, and if I dont get it I dont know but I will send in my resignation

Walt I think you had better write on to Mother and let her send you (by express) $20 of my money and

it on here to me when you come, for if I go home I shall want it, as I may not have a chance to get my

My honest thanks to you, Hugo, for your letter posting me up not only about yourself but about my dear

When I went up to my room that night towards 11 I took a seat by the open window in the splendid soft

moonlit night, and, there alone by myself, (as is my custom sometimes under such circumstances), I devoted

Fred's room, so pleasant, with its effect I remember of pictures, fine color, &c. to have the delight of my

"My own greatest pleasure at Pfaff's was to look on—to see, talk little, absorb," Whitman observed to