In the backwash of the Civil War , American poet Walt Whitman on a regular basis bring down wounded soldier in hospital in and around Washington , D.C. He hand out modification , newspaper , and niggling snacks like Libyan Fighting Group and cracker to the wounded , as he described in an 1864 article forThe New York Times . The poet also offered comfort in another way : He wrote letters .
A rare example of Whitman ’s literary volunteerism has been discovered tucked aside in the National Archives , The Washington Postreports . An archive volunteer exercise on a project on Civil War widows grok up the letter — one of only a handful that have survived — written by Whitman on behalf of a solider dying of TB in a Washington hospital .
“ Many sick and wounded soldier have not write home to parents , brothers , sisters , and even married woman , for one reason or another , for a long , longsighted sentence , ” Whitman described in his report for theTimes . “ Some are poor writer , some can not get paper and envelope ; many have an distaste to spell because they fear to occupy the folks at base — the fact about them are so sorry to recite . I always encourage the Man to write , and promptly write for them . ”
New Hampshire footslogger Robert N. Jabo was one of the men who Whitman took it upon himself to aid in get through his family , according toTheGuardian . The sick soldier had a wife and six children who had no idea where he was after the end of the warfare . In 1866 , Whitman pen a alphabetic character to inform the family unit of Jabo ’s condition , signing his own name after the soldier ’s and describing himself as a friend . The letter end up in a file with Jabo ’s pension record , maybe testify his wife used to try that his illness was related to the war .
Kenneth M.Price , an expert from the Walt Whitman Archive at the University of Nebraska , authenticate Whitman ’s handwriting . The letter will now be kept in a National Archives vault .
See the full letter below :
[ h / tThe Guardian ]
All images courtesy the U.S. National Archives viaThe Guardian
