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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

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.

I had a very pleasant passage and enjoyed the ride very much but yet I found that my wounds were somewhat

how things are moving and will be much pleased to hear from you and I will try to write you more in my

Boston December 11, 1863 Walt Whitman— My dear sir— I went to the hospital in Pemberton Square yesterday

There seems a sort of hopelessness about this, and being unused to hospitals my feelings were far from

See Trowbridge, My Own Story, with recollections of noted persons (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1903), 179

On October 18, 1863, Babbitt was depressed—"dark clouds seem to be lying in my pathway and I can not

remove them nor hide them from my mind"—until he mentioned his beloved, Nellie F.

& 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

Friend Walt I take my pen in hand to let you now where I am I am at Carlisle barracks in the hospittal

I think in A few days I Can put on my boots & not hurt me much of anny  there is lots of fruits here

of them ten cents noats if you pleas it is verry loansome here to me I hope that I shall soon gow to my

now how long it will last there is some talk of braking up 4 Companies of the 2 Cav & I dont no but my

son in the army it is about 2 O Clock at night now I am on gard sitting by A big fire you must excuse 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

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.

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

John Frederick Schiller Gray was a captain in the Twentieth New York Infantry and later held the same

—have a pretty bad cold, the doctor does not call my disease by any particular name—I have considerable

I send you my love.

I have not lately made any requests of my friends for more thinking you perhaps were well supplied for

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 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.

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

She came down on tuesday she is well though tired when she arrived she sends her love to you give my

had time to rite to you untill now & I have not got much time now the toe is most all healed up but my

foot is swelled so that I can not get my boot on it swelled from walking from the depot out her but

I would have stood on my dig some time longer if George had not brought some religious remarks to bear

as when you left,  I am still liveing in Capt Francis's tent as I have not been able to get one of my

Francis, also of Buffalo, New York, was promoted to the rank of captain to replace Hazard when the latter

Daily Eagle for January 5, 1863, a factual report of the activities of Brooklyn soldiers, especially Captain

I have just written to Walt, and although it is pretty late, I must write you a few lines while my hand

musent say anything about it Mother or the rebs might hear of it and come over here and eat us all up)  my

Well Mother it is getting chilly sitting here in my tent as the fire has gone out, so I must bid you,

I dont know, certain, that I can get, leave of absence, next week but I thnk my chances are pretty good

nothing at all, about what they brought us here for, but I rather think I was right in the surmise (in my

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

If so I suppose we will march to Aquia Creek, and go on board of Transports  My own oppinion is that

I have my house nearly finished, and was going to have a nice warm place.

Sims, a captain in George's Fifty-first New York Volunteer Regiment, had been the subject in part of

letter to his mother on December 16, 1862: "I have come out safe and sound, although I had the side of my

jaw slightly scraped with a peice of shell which burst at my feet."

written to you in quite a long time, as I have been waiting to find out something deffinite, about my

going to have a sepperate command and that Fortress Monroe is to be the place of rendezvous, and if my

Capts Sims and Wright (from this Regt) are home now, and when they get back I believe it is my turn,

come and see me as it is here, and if I can get a chance to come home I shall want the money to pay my

I had my log house almost finished, when the orders came for us to get ready to move, and was going to

Sims, a captain in George Whitman's Fifty-first New York Volunteer Regiment, had been the subject in

letter to his mother on December 16, 1862: "I have come out safe and sound, although I had the side of my

jaw slightly scraped with a peice of shell which burst at my feet."

May 29th/63 Dear Mother My last letter home, was written from Lancaster and dated somewhere about the

get as far in the State, as Liberty, without our hearing of it. and I dident like the idea of loseing my

Walt you see I aint got my furlough yet.

or in a case of life and death or something of that sort, so I dont know but they will jew me out of my

down here and see a feller, and if I do go home you must come as soon as I get back,  I shall have my

had on  leaving our trunks here in camp, and two or three times I have went to a pond and took off my

night, and got up at 4 O clock next morning feeling first rate, and I am now as well as ever I was in my

My morning report this morning (and for the last 8 days has been the same) was I—Capt, 2 Sergts 2 Corpls

I suppose the draft must be through with in New York & Brooklyn by this time, I wonder how many of my

another fine Stroke for our side, and Gillmore to at Charleston seems to be getting along well, but its my

I suppose Walt thinks strange of my not writing to him, but as you send my letters around, writing to

Sims, a captain in George Washington Whitman's Fifty-first New York Volunteer Regiment, had been the

letter to his mother on December 16, 1862: "I have come out safe and sound, although I had the side of my

jaw slightly scraped with a peice of shell which burst at my feet."

Jeff speaks of my trying for a leave of absence but I hardly think it would be of any use at present,

Give my love to all G. W.

Whitman I am in as good health as ever I was in my life George Washington Whitman to Louisa Van Velsor

V. but dont put on the Brigade, Division, or Corps, as I think perhaps the reason of my not hearing from

The whole thing in my opinion is one of the biggest of humbugs.

On March 17, Captain Whitman left Brooklyn to return to Newport News.

Hooker managed things so nicely in crossing the river, and getting a good position, that I about made up my

time never have been excuse from any duty whatever and having urgent business at home which demands my

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.

Hotel, Lexington Ky April 22d/63 Dear Brother Jeff You may think im'e rather putting on style, heading my

My sister, Mrs Charles P.

I inclose you to-day $30, the result of an application to my friends, the Misses Wigglesworth.

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

biography, The Ferry Boy and the Financier (Boston: Walker and Wise, 1864); he described their meetings in My

Though Trowbridge was not an idolator of Whitman, he wrote to O'Connor in 1867: "Every year confirms my

On October 18, 1863, Babbitt was depressed—"dark clouds seem to be lying in my pathway and I can not

remove them nor hide them from my mind"—until he mentioned his beloved, Nellie F.

My dear Walt.

from the booksellers for the present, so I sent you today a package of such books as I could pick from my

Good-bye, my dear friend, and may the good angels help you in your good work. J. T. Trowbridge.

biography, The Ferry Boy and the Financier (Boston: Walker and Wise, 1864); he described their meetings in My

Though Trowbridge was not an idolator of Whitman, he wrote to O'Connor in 1867: "Every year confirms my

See Trowbridge, My Own Story, with recollections of noted persons (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1903), 179

the one you propose—to stereotype, advertise and push it—implies an expenditure that may be beyond my

My Dear Sir : On my return, a few days since, from a long Western journey, I found your note respecting

go to-day to Montreal to be gone a week, and I have found quite tyrannical necessities at home for my

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

Dear friend, My idea is a book of the time, worthy the time—something considerably beyond mere hospital

interest I surely think—in some respects somewhat a combination in handling of the Old French Memoires, & my

own personality (things seen through my eyes, & what my vision brings)—a book full enough of mosaic,

I have many hospital incidents, [that] will take with the general reader—I ventilate my general democracy

know the people generally now are too (far more than they know,) & would readily absorb & understand my

could easily publish a small Book, but the one you propose...implies an expenditure that may be beyond my

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.

you a few lines to let you now that I am well and have got safe to the regment and I have bin to see my

famley they are well wee are all m[o]unted an wee have got the pras of the finest regment in these pats My

Captain Francis M.

companys of our regmet is at millsprings an 5 here they will return today they 70 prisners yesterd give my

Captain Francis M.

Whitman, Dear Friend I received your kind and ever welcome letter from you and glad to hear that my brother