- Joined
- Aug 27, 2011
- Location
- Central Massachusetts
Poet Walt Whitman spent most of the war years as a volunteer in army hospitals in and around Washington. All that time he kept notebooks, jotting down notes on the many hundreds of sick and wounded soldiers he helped. Often he gave their names, regiments, and home towns, details of their injuries, their background stories, etc. In the North American Review, vol. 144 (1887), he published an article containing "Some War Memoranda -- Jotted Down at the Time."
No idea if that's true or not. Maybe some soldier was telling Walt a tall tale -- or, maybe Walt was stretching things a bit himself. Has anyone familiar with Brandy Station heard anything similar?
I find this incident in my notes (I suppose from "chinning" in hospital with some sick or wounded soldier who knew of it):
When Kilpatrick and his forces were cut off at Brandy Station (last of September, '63, or thereabouts), and the bands struck up "Yankee Doodle" there were not cannon enough in the Southern Confederacy to keep him and them "in." It was when Meade fell back. K. had his cavalry division (perhaps 5,000 men), and the rebs, in superior force, had surrounded them. Things looked exceedingly desperate. K. had two fine bands, and ordered them up immediately; they joined and played "Yankee Doodle" with a will. It went through the men like lightning — but to inspire, not to unnerve. Every man seemed a giant. They charged like a cyclone, and cut their way out. Their loss was but 20. It was about two in the afternoon.
No idea if that's true or not. Maybe some soldier was telling Walt a tall tale -- or, maybe Walt was stretching things a bit himself. Has anyone familiar with Brandy Station heard anything similar?
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