Undergraduate Student Projects -- Harmand, Walt Whitman to Nat Bloom Letter

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Ian Harmand
11/26/08
HIS 267

 

For many historians, the Civil War immediately brings to mind images of General Robert E. Lee majestically riding "Traveller" into battle, or Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's incredible heroics at Gettysburg as he led his twentieth Maine regiment down Little Round Top. The truly lasting images, however, were manifested in the harrowing scenes of injured soldiers in hospitals and camps adjacent to the battlefields. It was in these distressing settings where nurses and physicians received first hand accounts of the harsh realities of war. The difficulty of putting scenes of men having limbs amputated or expiring from massive blood loss into words is unfathomable, even for the most eloquent of writers. 

The burden of watching men fight through pain under the most grueling conditions weighed heavily on the mind of Walt Whitman (31 May 1819-26 March 1892)1, who devoted his efforts throughout the war to improving the quality of life in Washington area hospitals. Whitman, a journalist and poet by trade, left his home state of New York for Virginia in December of 1862 to find his brother, George Washington Whitman, who was reportedly inured in the Battle of Fredericksburg. Whitman found his brother in a better condition than expected, and seeing that other soldiers in camp needed proper medical attention, he traveled north with the wounded soldiers to Washington2 (Loving, Jerome. "Whitman, Walt." American National Biography Online). 

Upon his arrival in the District of Columbia, Whitman served as an aide to "the amputated, sick, and sometimes dying soldiers"3 (Whitman, "Letter to Nat Bloom", 5 Sept. 1863) and recorded all of the brutal ailments he encountered. Outside of the emotionally draining moments of his volunteer work, Whitman tried to maintain a healthy lifestyle that took advantage of all the opportunities a new setting had to offer. He found time to enjoy the pleasantries of the fall season in Washington, while keeping up with his poetry and drafts of newspaper articles. According to Whitman, he carried on a modest existence in Washington, stating that, "I have a little room, and live a sort of German or Parisian student life...and rest ever free and happy enough"4 (Whitman, "Letter to Nat Bloom"). 

Although he maintained his composure through the brief observations he noted in the hospitals, which according to Charles I. Glicksberg, "were written in great haste, often at the bedside of a patient. Besides, he had to husband his strength, to restrain his emotions, if he were not to break down prematurely"5 (Glicksberg, "Hospital Cases," Walt Whitman and the Civil War, p. 146), Whitman showed signs of fatigue in a letter addressed to his good friend Nat Bloom on September fifth, 1863. 

Whitman utilized his journalistic and poetic background in this remarkably stirring letter to convey, to the best of his ability, the life changing scenes he routinely witnessed in the hospitals. Whitman expressed his deepest belief that the moments he spent attending to the needs of the wounded and the downtrodden men in uniform had stripped him to his emotional core, for, "the experience is a profound one, beyond all else and touches me personally, egotistically, in unprecedented ways"6 (Whitman, "Letter to Nat Bloom"). His physical, spiritual, and emotional dedication to aiding the weary was unrivaled, as he expounded the virtuous feeling of personal involvement in the lives of strangers. Whitman was the proverbial crutch for the wounded men to lean on, and his spirit was their preserver in a time of sheer desperation, with life and death hanging in the balance. Whitman believed this service to be his true life's calling, a duty he described with utmost passion in his famous work, "Song of Myself", in Leaves of Grass: 

I seize the descending man...I raise him with resistless will. 
O despairer, here is my neck, 
By God! you shall not go down! Hang your whole weight upon me7 (Whitman, "Song of Myself-40", Leaves of Grass, p. 71). 
 

In addition to Whitman's sympathetic encounters with the soldiers, who endured tremendous hardship and suffering, his personal correspondence also reflected a thirst for friendship and camaraderie, which is easily discerned from his expressions of loneliness. This is evident in Whitman's appeal to Bloom that, "I had not thought you had forgotten me, but I wondered why you did not write"8 (Whitman, "Letter to Nat Bloom"). 

A common theme in Whitman's poetry was the importance of maintaining friendships. It was a major focus of his reflections on life. The last lines of "In Paths Untrodden" brilliantly compliment Whitman's yearning to hear from Bloom and the rest of his companions back in New York, in that, "I proceed for all who are or have been young men, to tell the secret of my nights and days, to celebrate the need of comrades"9 (Whitman, "In Paths Untrodden", Calamus, p. 178). This poetic sentiment suggested that Whitman deemed it necessary to rely on close friends to put his altruistic behavior into perspective. A response from the likes of Bloom or Fred Gray granted Whitman the peace of mind to know that life continued back home, despite the fact that he was surrounded by agony and woe in the hospitals. While Whitman served as a comfort valve for the wounded soldiers, the presence of companions in his life duly returned the favor.  

 
Transcription of a letter from Walt Whitman to Nat Bloom 

[The original letter is held in the Manuscript Collection of the University of Rochester Rare Books and Special Collections Department; gift of Charles A. Brown, class of 1879.]

Washington 
September 5 1863 

Dear Nat 

I wish you were here if only to enjoy the bright and beautiful weather we are having here now for about two weeks- that it is sufficiently cool and the air buoyant and inspiriting- dear friend how long it is since we have seen each other, since those pleasant meetings and those hot spiced rums and suppers and our dear friends Gray and [Chauncy?] and Russell & [Fristchy?] too, (who for a while at first used to sit so silent,) & Perkins & our friend Raymond- how long it seems- how much I enjoyed it all- what a difference it is with me here- I tell you Nat my evenings are frequently spent in scenes that make a terrible difference- for I am still a hospital visitor, there has not passed a day for months, (or at least not more than two) that I have not been among the sick and wounded, either in hospitals or down in camp- occasionally here I spend the evenings in hospitals- the experience is a profound one, beyond all else and touches me personally, egotistically, in unprecedented ways- I mean the way often the amputated, sick, and sometimes dying soldiers cling and cleave to me as it were as a man overboard to a plank, and the perfect content they have if I will remain with them, sit on the side of the cot awhile, some youngsters often, and caress them [?].- It is delicious to be the object of so much love and reliance and to do them such good, soothe and pacify torments of wounds [?]- you will doubtless see in what I have said the reason I continue so long in this kind of life- as I am entirely on my own hook too. 

Life goes however quite well with me here- I work a few hours a day at copying [?], occasionally write a newspaper letter, and make enough money to pay my expenses- I have a little room, and live a sort of German or Parisian student life- always get my breakfast in the my room, (have a little spirit lump) and rest ever free and happy enough, untrammeled by business, for I make what little employment I have suit my moods- walk quite a good deal, and in this weather the rich and splendid environs of Washington are an [unfairly?] fountain to me- go down the river or off into Virginia once in a while- all around us here are forts, [by the score?]- great ambulance & teamsters' camps [?]- These I go to,- some have little hospitals, I visit, [?] [?]


Dear Nat, your good and friendly letter came safe, and was indeed welcome- I had not thought you had forgotten me, but I wondered why you did not write- what comfort you must take out there in the country, [by the river?]- I have read your letter many times, as I do from all my dear friends and boys there in New York- Perkins lately wrote me a first-rate letter, and I will reply to it soon- I wish to see you all very much- I wish you to give my love to [Fritschy?] and Fred Gray- I desire both to write to me- Nat you also my dear comrade, and tell me all about the boys and everything, all the little items are so good- should Charles Russell visit New York, I wish you to say to him I send him my love- I wish you the same to Perk and to Kingsley and Ben [Knowes?]. So good bye my comrade till we meet, and God bless you dear friend.
Walt

 

Works Cited

 

  • Whitman, Walt. "Letter to Nat Bloom." 5 September 1863.
  • Whitman, Walt. "In Paths Untrodden." Calamus. Walt Whitman's Poems. Eds. Gay Wilson Allen and Charles T. Davis. Copyright © 1955 by New York University Press. New York: Grove Press, Inc. and Evergreen Books, 1959. p. 178.
  • Whitman, Walt. "Song of Myself-40." Leaves of Grass. The First (1855) Edition. Ed. Malcolm Cowley. New York: The Viking Press, Inc. Compass Books Edition, 1959. p. 71.
  • Glicksberg, Charles I. Walt Whitman and the Civil War. "Hospital Cases." Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1933. p. 146.
  • Loving, Jerome. "Whitman, Walt." American National Biography Online. February 2000. 1 December 2008. Copyright © 2000 American Council of Learned Societies. Oxford University Press. http://www.anb.org/articles/16/16-01761.html.

​Footnotes

  1.  Loving, Jerome. "Whitman, Walt." American National Biography Online
  2.  ibid.
  3.  Whitman, Walt. "Letter to Nat Bloom." 5 September 1863.
  4.  ibid.
  5.  Glicksberg, "Hospital Cases,"Walt Whitman and the Civil War, p. 146.
  6.  Whitman, Walt. "Letter to Nat Bloom."
  7.  Whitman, Walt. "Song of Myself-40", Leaves of Grass, p. 71.
  8.  Whitman, Walt. "Letter to Nat Bloom."
  9.  Whitman, Walt. "In Paths Untrodden," Calamus, Walt Whitman's Poems, p. 178.


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