Whitman had not yet written Drum-Taps, with poems such as “Reconciliation,” “Cavalry Crossing a Ford” and “I Saw Old General at Bay.” Also, still to come was one of his finest poems, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.”

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Then would come “By Blue Ontario’s Shore,” “To a Locomotive in Winter,” “To a Common Prostitute,” “Passage to India” and “The Sleepers.”

“A Noiseless Patient Spider” (1868) is an exquisite work of art by a poet at the top of his bent. I would be glad to demonstrate that on paper.

Arthur Kay
Via e-mail

Whitman biographer Roy Morris, Jr., responds: I’m not responsible for Mr. Anderson’s opinion, but I think he was more correct than incorrect in his interpretation of Whitman’s poetic career. Mr. Kay is partially right in noting that Whitman did write other fine poems after the Civil War, but most Whitman scholars believe that his best work was, indeed, behind him following the publication of Leaves of Grass in 1855. Even “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” is not universally considered one of Whitman’s greatest poems.

Certainly, I make the point in my book that Whitman’s Civil War poems, in Drum-Taps, were quite significant. As I say on page 61 of The Better Angel, “This was a new way of writing, not just for Whitman but for American literature in general, and its importance can scarcely be overstated.”

Nevertheless, Whitman would still be remembered as a great poet if he had never written his post­Civil War poems. By the way, three of the poems Mr. Kay cites–”The Sleepers,” “By Blue Ontario’s Shore” and “To a Common Prostitute”–were all published before the Civil War, so he’s not entirely correct in his dating.

Confederate Uniform

Ross Kimmel’s piece on the Henry Hollyday uniform in the January 2001 issue was a nice bit of research and writing.

I found in the National Archives’ Register of Letters Received by the Office of the Confederate Quartermaster General (RG 109, vol. 12, “K-25″) an entry under the date of November 30, 1864, for a letter received from Geo. P. Kane, dated the previous day. Its content is described as: “Asks QMD [Quartermaster Department] officers at Greensboro [N.C.] be telegraphed to take charge of 7 bales of goods for Marylanders & send them on gov’t trains to this place [Richmond].”

Michael Musick
National Archives and
Records Administration

Editor’s note: Thanks for uncovering this historical nugget. If nothing else, the letter entry lends further credence to the theory that George P. Kane, in his effort to materially aid his fellow Marylanders in the Army of Northern Virginia, personally struck a deal with North Carolina officials for uniforms and equipment.

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