II.
(White paper, 4" x 6", four pages; envelope addressed to Charles W. Eldridge / care Major Hapgood / Paymaster U S Army / Washington D C, postmarked Brooklyn.)
Brooklyn
Tuesday afternoon June 28 '64
Dear comrade
I have been improving for the last two days, & think I shall
be up & around soon, as well as ever—I have had the services
of
a good physician, who has allowed me to get well quite
naturally—he decided that the only thing needing serious watching
was the throat & had prepared if the disease there went beyond a
certain point to call in a skilful New York doctor, for
consultation, but fortunately we were saved the trouble—I felt a
good deal like myself the most of yesterday, & the same
to-day—so I don't think I am hurrahing before I am out of the
woods.
—We have a letter from my brother George, down to 18th
inst.
he was all safe.
—My mother & folks are all well—
—I rece'd the letter enveloped to me 25th—
I sent a line to Wm O'Connor, 25th which I suppose he
rec'd—
—Has Nelly gone yet?
—I shall write to her next time—
—Remember me to Ashton with friendship—also to
Arnold
Johnson with sincere thanks & tell him I am getting
well—&
give my best respects & thanks to Major Hapgood.
Eldridge was a member of the firm of Thayer & Eldridge of
Boston who had published the 1860 edition of Leaves of
Grass
and then had gone bankrupt when the outbreak of war had
extinguished their Southern credit. Eldridge then became an
assistant in Major Hapgood's office in Washington and managed to
procure a desk for Whitman there and a small income for him for
minor copyist duties. Eldridge had also introduced Whitman to his
future biographer William O'Connor and his wife Nelly. J. Hubley
Ashton was Assistant Attorney-General. He later obtained a position
for Whitman in the Office of Indian Affairs. Arnold Johnson was
Charles Sumner's private secretary.
