A
letter written by Walt Whitman for an illiterate, dying soldier has been found in the National Archives. From the Washington Post:
Pvt. Robert N. Jabo, of the 8th New
Hampshire infantry, was dying of tuberculosis in Washington’s Harewood Hospital
and needed to write to his family.
The Civil War had been
over for months. Most soldiers had gone home. And Jabo’s wife and six children
were no doubt wondering where he was.
But he was sick and
illiterate. So a cheerful, bearded man who regularly visited hospitalized
soldiers offered to write a letter for him.
The
cheerful bearded man turned out to be Walt Whitman. Whitman wrote many letters for the wounded
and ill of the Civil War. During the war
Whitman helped in the hospitals in Washington D.C. where many of the Union
wounded were brought.
The letter was written on
both sides of a plain sheet of lined paper, which was probably Whitman’s. It
was written with a pen in neat, legible script, probably on Jan. 21, 1866.
“I am mustered out of the
service but am not at present well enough to come home,” it says on the front
side. “My complaint is an affection of the lungs. . . . I hope you will try to
write back as soon as you receive this and let me know how you all are.”
Wilson, of Arlington,
turned the letter over.
“Well I send you all my
love, and must now close,” it ends. “Your affectionate husband . . . ”
Two lines down, came the
surprise: “Written by Walt Whitman, a friend.”
It’s
an amazing find. I’m not sure if I’ve
said this before on a Whitman post of mine, but I’ll say it again. Whitman was an incredibly compassionate man
and a truly good soul.
Here’s
an image of the actual letter, with Whitman’s signature prominent.
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