{"id":1956,"date":"2016-05-29T05:55:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-29T05:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=1956"},"modified":"2025-09-29T19:16:44","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T19:16:44","slug":"memorial-day-this-monday-walt-whitman-on-remembering-the-dead-and-suffering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=1956","title":{"rendered":"Memorial Day this Monday; Walt Whitman on remembering the dead and suffering &#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"303\" src=\"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/6a00d834525a2f69e201bb0908a66c970d-200wi.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13455\" title=\"Walt whitman\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/6a00d834525a2f69e201bb0908a66c970d-200wi.jpg 200w, https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/6a00d834525a2f69e201bb0908a66c970d-200wi-198x300.jpg 198w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whitman was a volunteer nurse during the Civil War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A short excerpt below the link.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thepublicdiscourse.com\/2016\/05\/17020\/?utm_source=The+Witherspoon+Institute&amp;utm_campaign=09f4c368d8-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_15ce6af37b-09f4c368d8-84114469\">How and Why We Remember the Dead: A Memorial Day Lesson from Walt Whitman<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whitman particularly felt the urgent need to recall the soldiers who suffered and died in the military hospitals, which he called \u201cthe Untold and Unwritten History of the War.\u201d Some of the men killed on the battlefield might be remembered in military histories, but the men who died in hospitals from dysentery, infection, and fatal but long-lingering wounds might forever remain anonymous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a letter to his mother in 1864, Whitman describes firsthand a heartbreaking example of this kind of personal erasure. While volunteering at the local war hospital, he had witnessed the death of a newly arrived soldier:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>they took him into the ward, &amp; the doctor came immediately, but it was all of no use\u2014the worst of it is too that he is entirely unknown\u2014there was nothing on his clothes, or any one with him, to identify him\u2014&amp; he is altogether unknown\u2014Mother, it is enough to rack one\u2019s heart, such things\u2014very likely his folks will never know in the world what has become of him\u2014poor poor child, for he appeared as though he could be but 18\u2026.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Apart from a doctor\u2019s brief medical notes\u2014if indeed there were any\u2014Whitman\u2019s letter may very well be the only record in existence of the passing of that young man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whitman was a volunteer nurse during the Civil War. A short excerpt below the link. How and Why We Remember the Dead: A Memorial Day Lesson from Walt Whitman Whitman particularly felt the urgent need to recall the soldiers who suffered and died in the military hospitals, which he called \u201cthe Untold and Unwritten History [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1956"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13456,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956\/revisions\/13456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}