Mother, if I should come I will write a day or so before.
_The letter of June 17, 1864, is the last of Whitman's, written from
Washington at or about this time, that has been preserved and come down to
us. Many, probably many more than have been kept, have been lost; indeed,
it is a wonder that so many were saved, for they were sent about from one
member of the family to another, and when once read seem to have been
little valued. The reader will have noticed a certain change of tone in
the later letters, showing that Whitman was beginning to feel the inroads
which the fatigues, the unhealthy surroundings of the hospitals, and
especially the mental anxiety and distress inseparable from his work
there, were making upon even his superb health. Down to the time of his
hospital work he had never known a day's sickness, but thereafter he never
again knew, except at intervals which grew shorter and less frequent as
time went on, the buoyant vigor and vitality of his first forty-four
years. From 1864 to the end of 1872 the attacks described in his "Calamus"
letters became from year to year more frequent and more severe, until, in
January, 1873, they culminated in an attack of paralysis which never left
him and from the indirect effects of which he died in 1892._
_But for years, though often warned and sent away by the doctors, during
his better intervals and until his splendid health was quite broken by
hospital malaria and the poison absorbed from gangrenous wounds, he
continued his ministrations to the sick and the maimed of the war. Those
who joined the ranks and fought the battles of the Republic did well; but
when the world knows, as it is beginning to know, how this man, without
any encouragement from without, under no compulsion, simply, without beat
of drum or any cheers of approval, went down into those immense lazar
houses and devoted his days and nights, his heart and soul, and at last
his health and life, to America's sick and wounded sons, it will say that
he did even better._
_R. M. B._
_As at thy portals also death,
Entering thy sovereign, dim, illimitable grounds,
To memories of my mother, to the divine blending, maternity,
To her, buried and gone, yet buried not, gone not from me,
(I see again the calm benignant face fresh and beautiful still,
I sit by the form in the coffin,
I kiss and kiss convulsively again the sweet old lips, the cheeks, the
closed eyes in the coffin;)
To her, the ideal woman, practical, spiritual, of all of earth, life,
love, to me the best,
I grave a monumental line, before I go, amid these songs,
And set a tombstone here._
_Printed by John Wilson and Son, at the University Press, Cambridge,
U.S.A., in December, 1897._
Footnotes:
[1] His brother, Capt. (afterwards Col.) George W. Whitman, born 1829, now
(1897) residing in Burlington, N. J.
[2] His favorite sister, Hannah Louisa Whitman (Mrs. C. L. Heyde), born
1823, now (1897) residing in Burlington, Vt.
[3] His brother, Thomas Jefferson Whitman, born 1833, died 1890.
[4] Brig.-Gen. Edward Ferrero, commanding Second Brigade, Second Division,
Army of the Potomac, under whose command the 51st Brooklyn Regiment fought
at Fredericksburg. George Whitman was a captain in this regiment.
[5] Martha, wife of "Jeff." She died in 1873. "1873.--This year lost, by
death, my dear dear mother--and just before, my sister Martha--the two
best and sweetest women I have ever seen or known, or ever expect to see"
(WALT WHITMAN, "Some Personal and Old Age Jottings").
[6] "Jeff's" little daughter, Mannahatta. She died in 1888.
[7] His brother, Andrew Jackson Whitman, born 1827, died 1863. His other
brothers at this time, besides those previously mentioned, were Jesse
Whitman, born 1818, died 1870, and Edward Whitman, born 1835, died 1892.
[8] Martha.
[9] Mannahatta.
[10] William Douglas O'Connor, born Jan. 2, 1832. He was a journalist in
Boston in early life, went to Washington about 1861, first as clerk in the
Light House Bureau, and later became Assistant Superintendent of the
United States Life-Saving Service; died in Washington, May 9, 1889. He was
one of Whitman's warmest friends, and the author of "The Good Gray Poet."
[11] The Monitor foundered off Cape Hatteras in a gale December 29, 1862.
[12] "Jeff."
[13] A copy of the 1860 (first Boston) edition of "Leaves of Grass," which
Whitman used for preparing the next (1867) edition. From various evidence
this is the same copy, with his MS. alterations, which Secretary Harlan
found in Whitman's desk at the Interior Department in 1865, and which he
read surreptitiously before discharging the poet from his position. It is
now in the possession of Mr. Horace L. Traubel, of Camden, N. J.
The reference to "Drum-Taps," published in 1865, shows that it had already
taken shape in MS.
[14] Andrew Whitman's wife.
[15] Jessie Louisa Whitman.
[16] His sister, Mary Elizabeth Whitman (Mrs. Van Nostrand) born 1821 now
(1897) residing in Sag Harbor, L. I.
[17] Mrs. Whitman's maiden name was Louisa Van Velsor.
[18] Mrs. Abby Price, an intimate friend of Whitman, and a friend and
neighbor of his mother.
[19] Mrs. Price's son, a naval officer.
[20] Mrs. Price's daughter, and sister of the Helen mentioned later.
[21] Formerly of Thayer & Eldridge, the first Boston publishers of "Leaves
of Grass" (1860 Edition).
[22] Jeff's daughter Jessie was originally called California.