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Walt Whitman's Memoranda During the War by Walt Whitman
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First published January 1, 1988
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About the author
Walt Whitman
1,802 books5,421 followersWalter Whitman Jr. was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature. Whitman incorporated both transcendentalism and realism in his writings and is often called the father of free verse. His work was controversial in his time, particularly his 1855 poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described by some as obscene for its overt sensuality.
Whitman was born in Huntington on Long Island, and lived in Brooklyn as a child and through much of his career. At the age of 11, he left formal schooling to go to work. He worked as a journalist, a teacher, and a government clerk. Whitman's major poetry collection, Leaves of Grass, first published in 1855, was financed with his own money and became well known. The work was an attempt to reach out to the common person with an American epic. Whitman continued expanding and revising Leaves of Grass until his death in 1892.
During the American Civil War, he went to Washington, D.C., and worked in hospitals caring for the wounded. His poetry often focused on both loss and healing. On the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, whom Whitman greatly admired, he authored two poems, "O Captain! My Captain!" and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", and gave a series of lectures on Lincoln. After suffering a stroke towards the end of his life, Whitman moved to Camden, New Jersey, where his health further declined. When he died at the age of 72, his funeral was a public event.
Whitman's influence on poetry remains strong. Art historian Mary Berenson wrote, "You cannot really understand America without Walt Whitman, without Leaves of Grass... He has expressed that civilization, 'up to date,' as he would say, and no student of the philosophy of history can do without him." Modernist poet Ezra Pound called Whitman "America's poet... He is America."
Whitman was born in Huntington on Long Island, and lived in Brooklyn as a child and through much of his career. At the age of 11, he left formal schooling to go to work. He worked as a journalist, a teacher, and a government clerk. Whitman's major poetry collection, Leaves of Grass, first published in 1855, was financed with his own money and became well known. The work was an attempt to reach out to the common person with an American epic. Whitman continued expanding and revising Leaves of Grass until his death in 1892.
During the American Civil War, he went to Washington, D.C., and worked in hospitals caring for the wounded. His poetry often focused on both loss and healing. On the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, whom Whitman greatly admired, he authored two poems, "O Captain! My Captain!" and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", and gave a series of lectures on Lincoln. After suffering a stroke towards the end of his life, Whitman moved to Camden, New Jersey, where his health further declined. When he died at the age of 72, his funeral was a public event.
Whitman's influence on poetry remains strong. Art historian Mary Berenson wrote, "You cannot really understand America without Walt Whitman, without Leaves of Grass... He has expressed that civilization, 'up to date,' as he would say, and no student of the philosophy of history can do without him." Modernist poet Ezra Pound called Whitman "America's poet... He is America."
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
July 8, 2019
Those wishing to get a
real
glimpse of the wounded, maimed and sick soldiers of the Civil War, lying in hospitals, out on the ground awaiting ambulances and those interned in Southern prison camps, should read this. Whitman speaks of what he saw, experienced and was told as he sat with the men, the recuperating and the dying, both Union and Secession soldiers. The writing is vivid, albeit choppy because that related is a collection of memoranda. The telling moves forward chronically.
Robert Gorman narrates the audiobook. It is simple to follow, somber in tone and fits the text very well.
Although I have not given this classic a whopping four or five stars, it is a book I will not forget. Until you have read this, you do not truly grasp the Civil War.
Robert Gorman narrates the audiobook. It is simple to follow, somber in tone and fits the text very well.
Although I have not given this classic a whopping four or five stars, it is a book I will not forget. Until you have read this, you do not truly grasp the Civil War.
March 17, 2018
This was fantastic... well, not really. It was piecemeal & showed views of the American Civil War that I've never read about in such detail, but was rarely complete - a bunch of vignettes, diary entries that often led no where save to a single, stark, disturbing picture & the urge to weep. No real gore, but it was awful in so many ways & yet so important. At times it was repetitive & even boring, but overall it made a great impression. Sometimes it was almost written in verse.
Whitman started the Long Islander, a newspaper my grandfather owned, published, & edited for decades. My mother got a job there & that's how she met my father, so Whitman is part of our family lore. My grandfather had dozens of editions of his Leaves of Grass & could discuss the differences in great detail. As often as he recommended I read it, I've never made it all the way through, although I probably read all the poems in the last edition at one time or another. IOW, it never really moved me, especially not like this book did. I don't recall Grandpa ever recommending this or reading it, yet I know he was also well versed on Lincoln who shows up more than a few times. Anyway, I find it strange that I really connected to this book.
I did connect, too. The descriptions of the huge hospitals, the sudden influx of so many wounded that even the Patent Office had patients in it for a while, was incredible. The conditions these men faced & Whitman's kindness were all incredible. Perhaps worst was how long the men suffered under the medical care of the day. He doesn't describe an operation, but just how the men laid in their beds afterward. His impressions of important events from the loss at Bull Run to the horrors of Andersonville & Lincoln's assassination were powerful.
Highly recommended to everyone, especially anyone who thinks war is worth waging. This is the side that too rarely makes the written histories &, for all our technological advances, is still a large part.
Whitman started the Long Islander, a newspaper my grandfather owned, published, & edited for decades. My mother got a job there & that's how she met my father, so Whitman is part of our family lore. My grandfather had dozens of editions of his Leaves of Grass & could discuss the differences in great detail. As often as he recommended I read it, I've never made it all the way through, although I probably read all the poems in the last edition at one time or another. IOW, it never really moved me, especially not like this book did. I don't recall Grandpa ever recommending this or reading it, yet I know he was also well versed on Lincoln who shows up more than a few times. Anyway, I find it strange that I really connected to this book.
I did connect, too. The descriptions of the huge hospitals, the sudden influx of so many wounded that even the Patent Office had patients in it for a while, was incredible. The conditions these men faced & Whitman's kindness were all incredible. Perhaps worst was how long the men suffered under the medical care of the day. He doesn't describe an operation, but just how the men laid in their beds afterward. His impressions of important events from the loss at Bull Run to the horrors of Andersonville & Lincoln's assassination were powerful.
Highly recommended to everyone, especially anyone who thinks war is worth waging. This is the side that too rarely makes the written histories &, for all our technological advances, is still a large part.
November 12, 2017
… abissi inimmaginabili di emozioni …
«Forse sembrerà strano, ma prima di quel momento mai avevo compreso fino in fondo la maestosità e il realismo, la concretezza del popolo americano.».
Whitman la sua Civil War, l’ha combattuta non da soldato, ma da 'angelo degli ospedali’. Dalla presa di Fort Sumter fino alla fine della guerra, ha girovagato per gli ospedali di Washington e gli ospedali da campo allestiti nelle retrovie delle più sanguinose battaglie di questa guerra fratricida, dove, letteralmente, i fratelli hanno combattuto i fratelli. Ha conosciuto e assistito senza alcuna distinzione soldati dell’Unione e della Confederazione, aiutato infermiere, distribuito qualche spicciolo, abiti, cibo, spesso donati da dame e famiglie caritatevoli, ha dispensato conforto ai tanti che, consapevolmente, si avviavano verso la morte. Ha tenuto la mano dei moribondi, leggendo loro passi della Bibbia, ha chiuso gli occhi di tanti ragazzi non ancora ventenni, ha scritto lettere per le famiglie lontane. Non era un infermiere, ma una sorta di … ciconia pietatis cultrix.
Whitman descrive le bende, il sangue, i lamenti, i cumuli di arti amputati, ma anche la tenacia, la semplicità, la dignità, il coraggio, il patriottismo di giovani e meno giovani che si erano arruolati con la certezza che quella fosse la cosa giusta da fare. Tanti film western - ingenui e non - da Soldati a cavallo a Glory, da Ritorno a Cold Mountain a Shenandoah, dal naïf (ma non per questo meno bello, siamo nel 1939!) Via con Vento al sontuoso Gods and Generals, ci restituiscono in maniera magistrale il tumulto di passioni che ha profondamente permeato questa guerra, dalle battaglie più sanguinose come Gettysburg, all’abbraccio, colmo di dignità e amore, della madre al figlio in partenza per il fronte. Whitman scrive: «E per quanto possa sembrare curioso, secondo me la guerra ha dimostrato umanità, e ha dimostrato pure cosa sia l’America e la modernità». Non è un’esaltazione della guerra, né Whitman è un guerrafondaio, ma la sua riflessione è la testimonianza di come ad atti e azioni scellerate e feroci, abbia fatto da contraltare una infinità di piccoli e grandi gesti di amore, solidarietà, generosità, che Whitman ha avuto modo di osservare dal ruolo che si è auto assegnato di consolatore degli afflitti.
I soldati, nel corso delle sue lunghe soste al loro capezzale, lo fanno oggetto delle loro più intime confessioni e delle narrazioni di quanto hanno visto e vissuto nell’inferno delle battaglie. Whitman racconta di episodi di ferocia inaudita, e dà una descrizione cruda di cosa è una guerra: «Si moltiplichi l’episodio appena riferito per decine di volte, anzi centinaia – lo si modifichi secondo le forme che possono derivare dalle diverse circostanze, dai diversi individui e luoghi – alla luce di ogni più malvagia passione, alla luce dell’incontenibile sete di sangue dei lupi e dei leoni, alla luce degli irosi e ribollenti vulcani della vendetta umana per i compagni d’arme, per i fratelli uccisi – alla luce delle fattorie incendiate dei cumuli di nere braci fumanti e fuligginose – e alla luce delle braci più terribili e più nere di tutte le altre, quelle che covano nel cuore umano – e solo così avrete una vaga idea di cosa sia questa guerra.».
L’assassinio di Lincoln, che lui aveva più volte incrociato a Washington, lo aveva colpito e addolorato profondamente … O Captain! my Captain! … poi, due secoli dopo, il 20 gennaio …
[anobii Jan, 2017]
«Forse sembrerà strano, ma prima di quel momento mai avevo compreso fino in fondo la maestosità e il realismo, la concretezza del popolo americano.».
Whitman la sua Civil War, l’ha combattuta non da soldato, ma da 'angelo degli ospedali’. Dalla presa di Fort Sumter fino alla fine della guerra, ha girovagato per gli ospedali di Washington e gli ospedali da campo allestiti nelle retrovie delle più sanguinose battaglie di questa guerra fratricida, dove, letteralmente, i fratelli hanno combattuto i fratelli. Ha conosciuto e assistito senza alcuna distinzione soldati dell’Unione e della Confederazione, aiutato infermiere, distribuito qualche spicciolo, abiti, cibo, spesso donati da dame e famiglie caritatevoli, ha dispensato conforto ai tanti che, consapevolmente, si avviavano verso la morte. Ha tenuto la mano dei moribondi, leggendo loro passi della Bibbia, ha chiuso gli occhi di tanti ragazzi non ancora ventenni, ha scritto lettere per le famiglie lontane. Non era un infermiere, ma una sorta di … ciconia pietatis cultrix.
Whitman descrive le bende, il sangue, i lamenti, i cumuli di arti amputati, ma anche la tenacia, la semplicità, la dignità, il coraggio, il patriottismo di giovani e meno giovani che si erano arruolati con la certezza che quella fosse la cosa giusta da fare. Tanti film western - ingenui e non - da Soldati a cavallo a Glory, da Ritorno a Cold Mountain a Shenandoah, dal naïf (ma non per questo meno bello, siamo nel 1939!) Via con Vento al sontuoso Gods and Generals, ci restituiscono in maniera magistrale il tumulto di passioni che ha profondamente permeato questa guerra, dalle battaglie più sanguinose come Gettysburg, all’abbraccio, colmo di dignità e amore, della madre al figlio in partenza per il fronte. Whitman scrive: «E per quanto possa sembrare curioso, secondo me la guerra ha dimostrato umanità, e ha dimostrato pure cosa sia l’America e la modernità». Non è un’esaltazione della guerra, né Whitman è un guerrafondaio, ma la sua riflessione è la testimonianza di come ad atti e azioni scellerate e feroci, abbia fatto da contraltare una infinità di piccoli e grandi gesti di amore, solidarietà, generosità, che Whitman ha avuto modo di osservare dal ruolo che si è auto assegnato di consolatore degli afflitti.
I soldati, nel corso delle sue lunghe soste al loro capezzale, lo fanno oggetto delle loro più intime confessioni e delle narrazioni di quanto hanno visto e vissuto nell’inferno delle battaglie. Whitman racconta di episodi di ferocia inaudita, e dà una descrizione cruda di cosa è una guerra: «Si moltiplichi l’episodio appena riferito per decine di volte, anzi centinaia – lo si modifichi secondo le forme che possono derivare dalle diverse circostanze, dai diversi individui e luoghi – alla luce di ogni più malvagia passione, alla luce dell’incontenibile sete di sangue dei lupi e dei leoni, alla luce degli irosi e ribollenti vulcani della vendetta umana per i compagni d’arme, per i fratelli uccisi – alla luce delle fattorie incendiate dei cumuli di nere braci fumanti e fuligginose – e alla luce delle braci più terribili e più nere di tutte le altre, quelle che covano nel cuore umano – e solo così avrete una vaga idea di cosa sia questa guerra.».
L’assassinio di Lincoln, che lui aveva più volte incrociato a Washington, lo aveva colpito e addolorato profondamente … O Captain! my Captain! … poi, due secoli dopo, il 20 gennaio …
[anobii Jan, 2017]
June 16, 2019
This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Walt Whitman the greatest American poet (along with Emily Dickinson) of the 19th century. So I thought I'd read some of his work. I chose this short book about his notes as a visitor to wounded troops during the Civil War.
Besides being a great poet Whitman was also a very compassionate man, who spent countless hours reading to the troops, listening to them, giving small amounts of money to many...and in more than a few instances, holding their hands as they died. My admiration for him is greatly increased.
I also read some of his most beautiful poems...all those written about his hero, President Lincoln, and many about his love of New York.
What a treasure for the United States was this man.
Besides being a great poet Whitman was also a very compassionate man, who spent countless hours reading to the troops, listening to them, giving small amounts of money to many...and in more than a few instances, holding their hands as they died. My admiration for him is greatly increased.
I also read some of his most beautiful poems...all those written about his hero, President Lincoln, and many about his love of New York.
What a treasure for the United States was this man.
March 30, 2015
I don't know if I'm just getting lucky with these books I'm choosing (at random) or if the Civil War makes everyone who writes about it particularly inspired.
This is a beautifully written, tragic portrait of the war.If ever a book was to be read out loud (even to yourself) this is it.
History can be tough, there are too many battles, death tolls are so large they become abstract and meaningless. Whitman sits with the a soldier in the hospital and holds his hand as he dies. He tells you his name, the state where he grew up, where his wound is, what his personality is. He communicates these lives to you, dear reader, in whatever century they find you.
It isn't until Whitman's notes that one gets a sense of the struggle the Civil War posed to Whitman’s beliefs. More poignant still is his struggle to ground an american exceptionalism somewhere other than the self-serving cant of democracy and freedom that is used to cloak mere manifest destiny, imperialism, militarism, materialism. I don’t think he succeeds. Currently, I don’t think it is possible. But we all struggle with it.
It is also in the notes one gets a sense that Whitman’s optimism can be a liability. He never shakes his belief that America has some world historical purpose, and that the civil war only forged a closer national unity to better accomplish that purpose. Whitman didn't live to see all of the consequences of Reconstruction, but he did live through the war and the Gilded Age and, while outraged, he never seems to learn the lessons they taught. It’s this very blindness to his own country that allows him to say that the Mexican War was the first time we ever did wrong to anybody!
This is a beautifully written, tragic portrait of the war.If ever a book was to be read out loud (even to yourself) this is it.
History can be tough, there are too many battles, death tolls are so large they become abstract and meaningless. Whitman sits with the a soldier in the hospital and holds his hand as he dies. He tells you his name, the state where he grew up, where his wound is, what his personality is. He communicates these lives to you, dear reader, in whatever century they find you.
It isn't until Whitman's notes that one gets a sense of the struggle the Civil War posed to Whitman’s beliefs. More poignant still is his struggle to ground an american exceptionalism somewhere other than the self-serving cant of democracy and freedom that is used to cloak mere manifest destiny, imperialism, militarism, materialism. I don’t think he succeeds. Currently, I don’t think it is possible. But we all struggle with it.
It is also in the notes one gets a sense that Whitman’s optimism can be a liability. He never shakes his belief that America has some world historical purpose, and that the civil war only forged a closer national unity to better accomplish that purpose. Whitman didn't live to see all of the consequences of Reconstruction, but he did live through the war and the Gilded Age and, while outraged, he never seems to learn the lessons they taught. It’s this very blindness to his own country that allows him to say that the Mexican War was the first time we ever did wrong to anybody!
February 10, 2024
“Dopo tutto, cos’è ogni nazione - e che cos’è un essere umano - se non una lotta tra opposti elementi confliggenti e paradossali - e cosa sono questi stessi elementi se non parti importanti di quell’unica identità e del suo divenire?”
March 19, 2020
This book made me feel very uncomfortable as a reader. That does not make it a bad book but there are plenty of reasons why someone would consider this book to be cringeworthy one. It is also not surprising that this book was initially released only to a small insider audience, considering that the book contains material that would have earned him some serious and well-earned scrutiny had it been wider known. I can't help but thinking that the author's writing would have gone off badly considering the way that he refers to wounded soldiers as being loving and affectionate. There is homoeroticism aplenty to be found in this book and if you don't appreciate reading about a closeted gay man in the 1860's writing devoted notes about ten years after the fact about those wounded soldiers he found attractive, you will probably not enjoy this book too much. There is definitely some value here in looking at this as a Civil War memoir of sorts from a historically significant person, but there are reasons why this book is not nearly as familiar as some of the other writings of the period.
This book is a short one at a bit more than 150 pages and it has an interesting history, to be sure. The book begins with acknowledgements and an introduction about Whitman's war experience by the editor that made this reader feel increasingly uncomfortable about the purpose of this edition of the book. Whitman's war experience was, to put it the most charitably, an embarrassment and highly immoral. After that the memoranda begin in chronological order as the author talks about the relationship between civil and military authorities and the larger number of wounded. Although Whitman's brother quickly recovers (he is later captured and imprisoned and this leads the author to be upset about the arithmetic of attrition), Whitman finds plenty of men to care for over the course of 1863-1865, the book ending somewhat abruptly when the last hospitals close in the capital with the wounded sent home to recover. After this main part of the book is done there are notes, some notes by the editor, and then some additional material including writing about the death of Abraham Lincoln (i), some selected poems (ii), and a letter to the parents of Erastus Haskell. The book has some illustrations as well.
Indeed, the whole writing of this work seems odd. Although this book purports to be a memorandum written from 1863 to 1865, the account itself was not actually written until more than ten years later as the United States faced the divisive and controversial election of 1876 where massive election fraud made discovering the actual winner at this point a difficult task. But why was it written? What would the author have to gain from incriminating himself writing about his affection in wounded soldiers from both the north and south? Was he trying to use his account of caring for injured soldiers as a way of helping with the national reconciliation effort as it became obvious that Reconstruction was a done deal and that there would end up being a sort of alliance between Northern and Southern whites to forget that the Civil War happened and not make any progress on improving the status of free blacks? The author clearly has a lot to say about white soldiers of both the North and South but he appears not to have been the sort of person who was highly motivated by a desire to do justly by America's blacks. This just adds to the people who would likely be offended by this book, though.
This book is a short one at a bit more than 150 pages and it has an interesting history, to be sure. The book begins with acknowledgements and an introduction about Whitman's war experience by the editor that made this reader feel increasingly uncomfortable about the purpose of this edition of the book. Whitman's war experience was, to put it the most charitably, an embarrassment and highly immoral. After that the memoranda begin in chronological order as the author talks about the relationship between civil and military authorities and the larger number of wounded. Although Whitman's brother quickly recovers (he is later captured and imprisoned and this leads the author to be upset about the arithmetic of attrition), Whitman finds plenty of men to care for over the course of 1863-1865, the book ending somewhat abruptly when the last hospitals close in the capital with the wounded sent home to recover. After this main part of the book is done there are notes, some notes by the editor, and then some additional material including writing about the death of Abraham Lincoln (i), some selected poems (ii), and a letter to the parents of Erastus Haskell. The book has some illustrations as well.
Indeed, the whole writing of this work seems odd. Although this book purports to be a memorandum written from 1863 to 1865, the account itself was not actually written until more than ten years later as the United States faced the divisive and controversial election of 1876 where massive election fraud made discovering the actual winner at this point a difficult task. But why was it written? What would the author have to gain from incriminating himself writing about his affection in wounded soldiers from both the north and south? Was he trying to use his account of caring for injured soldiers as a way of helping with the national reconciliation effort as it became obvious that Reconstruction was a done deal and that there would end up being a sort of alliance between Northern and Southern whites to forget that the Civil War happened and not make any progress on improving the status of free blacks? The author clearly has a lot to say about white soldiers of both the North and South but he appears not to have been the sort of person who was highly motivated by a desire to do justly by America's blacks. This just adds to the people who would likely be offended by this book, though.
August 27, 2019
We know of American Civil War women nurses. Along with obeying doctor's orders, women nurses provided mothering skills and motherly love to men who were far from home and needed tenderness. Sick and hurt men also need a source of manly strength. Whitman gathered funds and supplies from community in and around Washington, DC. He was able to supply small tokens of news, food, and coin along with fatherly presence and supportive talk and therapeutic touch. I imagine Whitman sometimes glowing with love.
In Memoranda, Whitman records what there is that he find record-worthy in hospitals and of Washington, DC and its environs. He describes the recovery/ambulance service, the hospital environment, the various men from various parts of the country, his sightings of Lincoln, and even more.
The description Whitman writes of the assassination leads me to believe that he might have been at the Ford Theater that fateful night.
This Memoranda is decidedly a Transcendentalist work. Whitman admires Lincoln for his Romantic-Transcendentalist mein, clothing, presentation of self. (For a discussion of Lincoln as Romantic-Transcendentalist ideal, see "The Transcendental Declaration" in Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America by Garry Wills.)
Along with memory, Whitman describes his ideal US future. The ideal described is Transcendental, pre-industrial Period, Scientific, Truth-based.
Still more to this short work. Packs quite a punch. Worthwhile for a variety of readers interested in Civil War and Transcendentalist and various related topics.
In Memoranda, Whitman records what there is that he find record-worthy in hospitals and of Washington, DC and its environs. He describes the recovery/ambulance service, the hospital environment, the various men from various parts of the country, his sightings of Lincoln, and even more.
The description Whitman writes of the assassination leads me to believe that he might have been at the Ford Theater that fateful night.
This Memoranda is decidedly a Transcendentalist work. Whitman admires Lincoln for his Romantic-Transcendentalist mein, clothing, presentation of self. (For a discussion of Lincoln as Romantic-Transcendentalist ideal, see "The Transcendental Declaration" in Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America by Garry Wills.)
Along with memory, Whitman describes his ideal US future. The ideal described is Transcendental, pre-industrial Period, Scientific, Truth-based.
Still more to this short work. Packs quite a punch. Worthwhile for a variety of readers interested in Civil War and Transcendentalist and various related topics.
April 24, 2024
There is something different about reading a history book versus a first person account of history. This is Walt Whitman's narrative about his experience visiting military hospitals during the civil war. It's raw and amazing. His description of the soldiers and their lives is completely fascinating, and the love he had for mankind springs off the page. The account of what it was like in DC during and immediately following the Lincoln assassination was unlike any account I've ever read on that event. Highly recommend reading this. It can be read for free on the Walt Whitman Archive here: https://whitmanarchive.org/item/ppp.0...
January 30, 2019
Walt Whitman reveals the gruesome reality of America’s 19th Century Civil War with a personal perspective like few that are readily available to the public today. There are many tidbits about the War, more from the Union perspective due to Whitman’s presence in hospitals in Washington during battles but a surprising commentary on the South as well. When you reach the end, Whitman reveals to you the truth, from today’s perspective, that we are still awaiting a true resolution of the War. We continue to fight many of the same battles today. Whitman is perhaps most known for poetry, but I argue this is his most vivid and valuable work.
February 21, 2022
Walt Whitman's Memoranda During the War is the best book I have read about a seldom thought about aspect of the Civil War. Having gone to Washington D. C. at the end of 1862 to visit his wounded brother George, Walt stayed there to tend to the sick and wounded through the end of the War. He writes about the known and the unknown, the anonymous soldiers who all too frequently did not survive their wounds.
"Common People . . . to me the main interest of the War, I found, (and still, on recollection find,) in those specimens, and in the ambulance, the Hospital, and even the dead on the field.)" (p 6)
The narrative displays the sort of interior history that you cannot get in history books. There is present in his prose a sort of ethereal innocence at times and an immediacy that comes from the contemporaneous notes that Whitman maintained in small notebooks. Throughout the narrative is imbued with thoughts of Homer's Iliad that Whitman held close to his heart. But even closer to his heart were the beautiful young boys who were being sacrificed on the battlefields. The contradictions of those he saw who would often be dead before the week was over contrasted with the bodies that lay on the battlefields, sometimes for a week or more before they were retrieved.
He found time to insert his observations from his walks around Washington. One poetic moment he described The White House at night; "the brilliant gas-light shining---the palace-like portico---the tall, round columns, spotless as snow . . ." What a contrast with his days in the hospitals surrounded by blood-soaked wounded soldiers, too young to be called the veterans that they were.
He concludes the narrative with his speculations about the future for the country. This provides a fitting ending for what is a fascinating, moving, and above all a heartfelt account of our greatest poet's experiences during the Civil War.
"Common People . . . to me the main interest of the War, I found, (and still, on recollection find,) in those specimens, and in the ambulance, the Hospital, and even the dead on the field.)" (p 6)
The narrative displays the sort of interior history that you cannot get in history books. There is present in his prose a sort of ethereal innocence at times and an immediacy that comes from the contemporaneous notes that Whitman maintained in small notebooks. Throughout the narrative is imbued with thoughts of Homer's Iliad that Whitman held close to his heart. But even closer to his heart were the beautiful young boys who were being sacrificed on the battlefields. The contradictions of those he saw who would often be dead before the week was over contrasted with the bodies that lay on the battlefields, sometimes for a week or more before they were retrieved.
He found time to insert his observations from his walks around Washington. One poetic moment he described The White House at night; "the brilliant gas-light shining---the palace-like portico---the tall, round columns, spotless as snow . . ." What a contrast with his days in the hospitals surrounded by blood-soaked wounded soldiers, too young to be called the veterans that they were.
He concludes the narrative with his speculations about the future for the country. This provides a fitting ending for what is a fascinating, moving, and above all a heartfelt account of our greatest poet's experiences during the Civil War.
August 20, 2019
Whitman's personal recolelctions of his time serving as a nurse during teh Civil War are a poetic desrcitpion of his feelings, the agony of the soldiers he encounters, as well as the warmth of feeling he has for his fellow Americans, both soldiers from the North and South, as well as the doctors and other nurses (female) who aided them. His philosophical teatises on "America" and what the future holds for the nation, sometimes wax on a bit long; however, he did foresee some of the future problems the nation would face in the decades after the war's end.
April 23, 2019
I've long admired Whitman's commitment both to his brother, who we went searching for when wounded and to his staying in Washington being a prescience to the wounded and sick during the Civil. And it was wonderful to read the prose of this poet. Good stuff.
December 8, 2020
Not my kind of book but well written.
September 29, 2024
Not poetry but an insight into his service during the Civil war. Touching stories.
October 16, 2016
Its nice to leisurely read about the normal wants and needs of Civil War soldiers. They arent thrown on a historical pedestal, all soldiers becoming one object instead of individual. I did feel that the book was a bit long, and I got the idea of the soldiers aftwr the first few entries. After hearing aboht the war in history class, it is a relief to read something that doesn't glorify the war, but announces that the gore on both ends was unnecessary.
August 15, 2015
I would highly recommend this book even though in some respects it was disappointing. The diaries seem a bit hit and miss. I wish they were more complete. When Whitman talks about his encounters with the soldiers, the commentary is rich and his compassion and humanitarianism is unmistakable. It would be so much more informative if he had left more complete descriptions of his days and sometimes even nights spent in the hospitals during the War. That he was like an angel for so many wounded and sick soldiers is obvious. His reflections on the War ten years later were not quite so illuminating. I found his commentary oftentimes to be rambling and not always written in as clear language as one might expect. Although I would not consider him to be one of the great political or philosophical sages of the era, he was unquestionably one of its great humanitarians and in my opinion, perhaps its greatest poet. (although this book is prose)
October 3, 2013
It was both interesting and boring. It was interesting to hear Whitman's first-hand accounts of Civil War life, visiting soldiers in the hospital and the political tone of the time. And while all that was interesting, it was dry and, well, a bit boring at times. Civil War buffs would probably enjoy this more than the Average Joe. I'm glad I listened to it, but not so sure my life was changed by it.
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December 30, 2015As someone who is not a huge fan of Whitman's poetry, I was thoroughly moved by this collection of diary entries. Whitman served as a volunteer in hospitals attempting to treat the wounded and sick from the Civil War, and this is a record of his personal experiences. I found it fascinating to read the descriptions of medical treatments, but my students found some of it gory! I recommend it to anyone interested in the human side of the Civil War.
June 14, 2013
Wow--great book. Easy and quick read. I had not read anything of Whitman's before this. The experts from his time spent with soldiers in the hospital were fascinating. His very personal notes and comments were so revealing I was stunned they were written in that era. They were provocative and yet so intimately compassionate. If you like history you'll like this book.
March 3, 2008
In this book Whitman talks a lot about his volunteer work at Civil-War Hospitals. That guy was like a one-man USO. He really did a lot to help those kids feel better. There was also a little account of Lincoln's wartime activities at the end of the book.
May 6, 2016
This is a companion book to "Drum-Taps". I read excerpts from this to compare Walt Whitman's poetry to his diary entries. It was pretty dry reading but you can see the relationship between his diary and his poems.
July 29, 2008
Whitman was an interestingly complex man with a unique spirit of caring. He shows it in this book.
April 27, 2011
What compassion. A must read.
March 17, 2015
Though I'm afraid this text sometimes slips into Whitman's notorious martial excitement, it remains an incredible account of his experience, depicting an intimately personal side of wartime atrocity.
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February 9, 2018818 W615m 2004
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