[AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT NOTES, UNSIGNED, ABOUT THE BATTLE OF IUKA] "MEM OF SOLDIERS" [caption title].

Whitman, Walt:

Edité par [N.p. N.d. but after September 19, 1862].

A propos de cet article

A remarkable and poignant Whitman manuscript, comprised of notes based on the recollections of one or more of the soldiers he encountered either while in search through hospitals and in the areas of action around Maryland for his brother George, who had been reported wounded at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December of 1862, or during his eventual tenure as a volunteer at the military hospitals. Whitman located his brother, who was fortunately only slightly wounded, and returned to Washington as an escort, assisting seriously wounded troops from Fredericksburg. As a consequence of his intimate view of the tragedy and carnage of battle, rather than return to New York, he remained in Washington, visiting those soldiers and others in the Campbell and Armory Square hospitals on an almost daily basis. "Whitman's attention to the wounded was extraordinary he estimated that over the course of the war, he had made 'over 600 visits or tours, and went.among from 80,000 to 100,000 of the wounded and sick, as sustainer of spirit and body in some degree, in time of need'" (Murray). For those soldiers, he fetched daily necessities, wrote letters home, and otherwise provided comfort and support. It is quite possible that it was while listening to the personal stories of the wounded that he made these notes. The Battle of Iuka was fought on September 19, 1862, in Iuka, Mississippi, in the opening battle of the Iuka-Corinth Campaign, in the course of which Union Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans stopped the advance of the Confederate Army of the West commanded by Maj. Gen. Sterling Price. Perhaps Whitman intended these notes about the battle as background for his articles for the New York Times or Brooklyn Daily Eagle or for the work that was finally published as Drum Taps: "11th Missouri reb [/] & [/] 11th [Missouri] Union [/] [crosshatch] at battle Iuka [/] - charged each other furiously [/] - each determined to capture [/] the other's colors [/] _ fighting desperately _ [/] both seemed equally brave [/] _ no regard to safety [/] _ many of both regiments [/] slaughtered." The records indicate the Union casualties at Iuka were 790 (144 killed, 598 wounded, FORTY captured or missing) and the Confederates lost 1,516 (263 killed, 692 wounded, 561 captured or missing). These manuscript notes are a tangible record of the participation of the greatest poet of the American 19th century in the central historical and military event of that century. Martin G. Murray, "Traveling with the Wounded: Walt Whitman and Washington's Civil War Hospitals" in Washington History, Vol. 8, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 1996/1997), p.62. One-half page, on quarto sheet of ruled paper (25½ × 20½ cm), hinged on verso at top edge to slightly large sheet. Caption title in blue pencil, remainder in brown ink, 35+ words. Horizontal fold and one vertical fold, dust soiling and pale tan splashmarks along right edge and top left forecorner, otherwise good to very good.

N° de réf. du vendeur 67151

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: [AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT NOTES, UNSIGNED, ABOUT THE BATTLE OF IUKA] "MEM OF SOLDIERS" [caption title].
• Éditeur: [N.p. N.d. but after September 19, 1862].