Now the Drum of War:
Shortly after the battle of Fredericksburg on Dec. 13, 1862, the poet Walt Whitman of Brooklyn, N.Y., visited the battlefield looking for his younger brother George, a Union soldier who had been wounded. It turned out that George’s injury was not serious (a shell fragment had pierced his cheek). The trip, however, had an effect on Whitman. The poet, author of the acclaimed 1855 volume Leaves of Grass, noticed while visiting the Union camp that the soldiers eagerly looked forward to receiving mail from home. He promptly wrote to his mother in Brooklyn, urging her, as well as his other seven brothers and sisters, to write regular letters to George. Walt himself proceeded to correspond regularly. This book is an overview of the story told by the letters of this Civil War family — a story that is part biography, part social history and part military history. Author Robert Toper offers a revealing glimpse at two of the less visible sides of the war; life inside the military hospitals and life on the home front. The two central figures are George and Walt Whitman. George Whitman was representative of the stalwart working-class Union men who were the foundation of Northern victory. A carpenter by trade, he enlisted in the 13th Regiment New York Infantry shortly after Fort Sumter. He was 32 at the time. After serving 100 days, George re-enlisted for three years in the 51st New York Volunteers. Since he was older than most of the other men and had three month’s experience, he was made a sergeant major. In less than four years, George participated in more than 50 battles or notable engagements including Antietam, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania and the Crater. George displayed a natural aptitude for war; he remained clam and cool in battle and was promoted repeatedly for observed acts of valor while under fire. By the time he was wounded at Fredericksburg he was already a captain and headed a company. In late September 1864, George was captured near Poplar Springs Church and spent five months in a Confederate prison camp. After release, he continued to serve in the army until the war’s end, culminating his career as a brevet lieutenant colonel. Although Walt Whitman supported the Union cause, he had his doubts that the war was worth the suffering that it caused. After visiting George in 1862, Walt made it his personal mission (some would say “obsession”) to provide help to the war’s sick and wounded. Moving to Washington and finding a clerical job during the day to support himself, Walt spent much of his spare time visiting wounded in nearby military hospitals. He would sit and talk to the men to relieve their loneliness and homesickness and offer to write letters home for them. In four years, Walt made more than 600 hospital visits and, by his own estimate, tended to more than 80,000 of the sick and wounded. In addition to being illuminating, this book is also full of fascinating historical tidbits. My one complaint is that the author organized the material around ideas and trains of thought rather than presenting it in chronological order. The narrative jumps around, sometimes covering the same territory two or three times. Reviewer: Walt Albro is a magazine writer and editor who lives in Rockville, Md.
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Illustrated, bibliography, index, 380 pp., 2008. Walker Publishing Co., 175 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10010, $28 plus shipping.