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The Walt Whitman Archive

Brooklyn, N. Y. July 7th 1863

Enclosed please find $10 thus contributed

$5	from Jas. P. Kirkwood 1
$1	"   John D Martin 2
$1	"   Chas Botsford 3
	and $3 from self.

We are awfully pleased and excited at the war news. Feel as if the man ⁴   had been appointed that was thinking less of political affairs than of licking the rebs. We are just getting news of the surrender of Vicksburgh. Hope to God that it is true. Bully for Meade! ⁵   He has not only licked the rebs but the peace party headed by McClellan. ⁶   Hope that he will not let them off but will poke it into them  How do you get along? I suppose you hardly have time to write me. I sent you a letter containing $15 last week ⁷    did you get it?

Nothing new at home  I did not have any "time" on the 4th so I send you this money that I might have spent. do the little sums that we send you enable you to do any good.

Dear brother I am in a tremendious hurry, and you must excuse my letter. Mother sent you a letter a day or two since. Mattie and the babies ⁸   are first-rate. Mother quite well. rest all right. Will write you again in a few days

affectionately Jeff

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About the Text

The text presented here is derived from Dennis Berthold and Kenneth Price, eds., Dear Brother Walt: The Letters of Thomas Jefferson Whitman (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1984). 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 July 7, 1863, is held in the Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839-1919, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

For more information on the letters of Thomas Jefferson Whitman, see Dennis Berthold and Kenneth Price's introduction to the print edition.

Notes

1.  See Letter from Thomas Jefferson Whitman to Walt Whitman, 16 April 1860.  (Back)

2.  See Letter from Thomas Jefferson Whitman to Walt Whitman, 10 February 1863.  (Back)

3.  See Letter from Thomas Jefferson Whitman to Walt Whitman, 13 January 1863.  (Back)

4.  Probably Grant. As Jeff explains, he was thinking specifically of the fall of Vicksburg, but he was also encouraged by news concerning the Gettysburg campaign.  (Back)

5.  Major General George Gordon Meade (1815-72) succeeded Joseph Hooker as commander of the Army of the Potomac in June 1863, and led the army to victory at Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863).  (Back)

6.  General George Brinton McClellan was general-in-chief of the army of the United States from November 1861, until July 1862, when he was replaced by General Henry W. Halleck. In 1864, when McClellan ran for the presidency, the Democratic party split between war Democrats and peace Democrats. To satisfy the war Democrats McClellan was nominated; to satisfy the peace Democrats C. L. Vallandigham and his followers were allowed to draft the platform. Jeff evidently considered the entire Democratic party as "the peace party."  (Back)

7.  This letter is not extant.  (Back)

8.  Jessie Louisa, hereafter the "Sis" of Jeff's letters, was born June 17.  (Back)

Whitman Archive ID

loc.00416