Responding Kisses: New Evidence about the Origins of "Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night"

Martin G Murray

doi:10.13008/2153-3695.1850

Notes

Responding Kisses: New Evidence about the Origins of "Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night"

Abstract

Uses the recently discovered "military service records" of Bill and Arthur Giggie, including Arthur's letter to Bill's mother, Elizabeth Giggie, describing Bill's death, to "shed some additional light" on the Civil War episode that stands behind Whitman's poem "Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night"; suggests that the evidence indicates that Bill and Arthur Giggie may have been a homosexual couple serving together in the Union army, and that Whitman's poem may in fact record the end of this "love story."

Keywords:

How to Cite: Murray, M. G. (2008) “Responding Kisses: New Evidence about the Origins of "Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night"”, Walt Whitman Quarterly Review. 25(4). doi: https://doi.org/10.13008/2153-3695.1850