Now the Drum of War: Walt Whitman and His Brothers in the Civil War
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The Civil War is seen anew, and a great American family is brought to life, in Robert Roper’s brilliant evocation of the family Whitman. Walt Whitman’s work as a nurse to the wounded soldiers of the Civil War had a profound effect on the way he saw the world. Much less well known is the extraordinary record of his younger brother George Washington Whitman, who led his men in twenty-one major battles almost to die in a Confederate prison camp as the fighting ended. Drawing on the searing letters that Walt, George, their mother Louisa, and their other brothers wrote to each other during the conflict, Now the Drum of War chronicles the experience of an archetypal American family enduring its own long crisis alongside the anguish of the nation. Robert Roper has constructed a powerful narrative about America’s greatest crucible, and a compelling, braided story of our most original poet and one of our bravest soldiers.The Washington Post - Nicholas DelbancoBiographies of Whitman are numerous, and the bookshelf of critical assessments continues to expand. It isn't evident, therefore, that another book is needed, but Robert Roper's Now the Drum of War does strive for something new. His subtitle is "Walt Whitman and his Brothers in the Civil War," and he offers up a fresh perspective: the bard as family man…Via letters and notebook entries, Now the Drum of War fills in important blanks; we end up with a sense of the individual as part of an impressive collective entity called Whitman.
George Whitman, early in the war 3Walt Whitman, 1863 IOWalter Whitman Sr. 20Catharine Market, Brooklyn, 1850 22Walt Whitman, young newsman 32Walt Whitman, 1848 56The Myrtle Street house 59Walt Whitman, 1854 64Mrs. Whitman 72Brooklyn Water Works Pumping Engine # 1 87Jeff Whitman 96Louisa May Alcott 101Walt Whitman, around 1865 103Washington, D.C., in the Civil War 106Clara Barton 127General Edward Ferrero 139Burying soldiers, Fredericksburg, 1864 150William O'Connor 155Hospital tents in Washington, D.C. 162Ralph Waldo Emerson 169Walt Whitman, early 1860s 171John Burroughs 180Abraham Lincoln 195Walt Whitman's letter to Tom Sawyer 208Ward K, Armory Square Hospital 111George Whitman, later in the war 236Sanitary Commission workers, 1863 250William Hammond 252General Robert B. Potter 261Burnside's Bridge 264Dead soldiers at Antietam 265Sam Pooley 267Colonel Charles W. LeGendre 270Dead soldier at Spotsylvania 292Captain Samuel Sims 300Frank Butler 306Drawing of Danville prison camp 310Walt Whitman's letter for George's leave extension 340Abraham Lincoln's funeral procession 341Walt Whitman and Pete Doyle 349Walt Whitman, early 1870s 360Walt Whitman and Bill Duckett 378
