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The 14th of Brooklyn have lost very heavy  among the killed are Captains Davey and Mallery. ²    Joe Grummond ³   is wounded in the leg. I saw Joe a short time before he was hit and after he was wounded he was carried through the lines of our Regt. It was very discouraging to us as we lay on the hill to see hundreds of men leave their regiments without being hurt at all and some 2 or 300 wounded were either carried or walked through our ranks going to the rear. I think we was completely out generald ⁴    the most of our men was good enough but I think that they was badly handled. Mother I have just received a letter from you dated August 16th which is the only word I have had from home since we left Fredericksburg. We shall probably encamp here for a few days to recruit up a little and I hope you will write to me as soon as you get this. Mother do not feel the least uneaisiness about me as I never was heartier or ruggeder in my life. I am getting tired so good bye to all  I will write again soon ⁵  

Much Love to all
G. W. W.

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About the Text

The text presented here is derived from Jerome M. Loving, ed., The Civil War Letters of George Washington Whitman (Durham, North Carolina: Duke State University Press, 1975). For a detailed description of discrepancies between this electronic edition and the print source, see our statement of editorial policy .

The manuscript of this letter, dated September 5, 1862?, is held in the Trent Collection of Walt Whitman Manuscripts, Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library .

For more information on the letters of George Washington Whitman, see Jerome M. Loving's introduction to the print edition.

Notes

1.  This undated fragment was probably written soon after the Letter from George Washington Whitman to Louisa Van Velsor Whitman, 17 August 1862; it appears to dwell on the same subject: the results of a battle that included the Fourteenth New York State Militia (Eighty-Fourth Regiment of Infantry). In fact, it may well be the last part of the letter of September 5th—which lacks a closing signature.  (Back)

2.  George R. Davey, Captain of Company H, and George Mallory, Captain of Company B, both of the Eighty-Fourth Regiment of Infantry, died in battle on August 29, 1862, at Groveton, Virginia.  (Back)

3.  First Lieutenant Josiah M. Grummond, Company H of the same regiment, was wounded in action on August 29, 1862, at Groveton, Virginia. He died of his wounds on September 9, 1862, at Washington, D.C.  (Back)

4.  This remark is especially significant in placing the letter soon after the Second Battle of Bull Run, for historians agree that this Union defeat was owing to the tactical errors of General John Pope, and not to any lack of troop morale. Additionally, George's mention of having received a letter from his mother dated August 16th—the first from home since his regiment moved up from Fredericksburg—seems, at the very least, to place this fragment in the early part of September 1862.

It is interesting to note that Walt Whitman shared his brother's disappointment in the Union military leaders. Concerning the first battle of Bull Run, he wrote this description of the Union officers who had returned to Washinton after the battle: "The principal hotel, Willard's, is full of shoulder-straps—thick, crush'd, creeping with shoulder-straps. (I see them, and must have a word with them. There you are, shoulder-straps!—but where are your companies? where are your men? Incompetents! never tell me of chances of battle, of getting stray'd, and the like. I think this is your work, this retreat, after all. Sneak, blow, put on airs there in Willard's sumptuous parlors and bar-rooms, or anywhere—no explanation shall save you. Bull Run is your work; had you been half or one-tenth worthy of your men, this would never have happen'd.)"   Prose Works , I, 28-29.

 (Back)

5.  See Civil War Diary.  (Back)

Whitman Archive ID

duk.00326