Note added to letter from Walt Whitman to Louisa Van Velsor Whitman, 31 March 1863

A seemingly random "74" appeared in the body of the letter from Walt Whitman to Louisa Van Velsor Whitman, 31 March 1863 (loc.00765), next to Probasco's name. This "74" corresponds with Edwin Haviland Miller's footnote 74 to the letter which appears on page 87 of the first volume of Whitman: The Correspondence (1842-1867). Miller's footnote reads, "See 31," which refers to the Letter from Walt Whitman to Thomas Jefferson Whitman, 16 January [1863] (wwh.00004), in which Whitman refers to Louis Probasco; on page 66, Miller offers the following footnote: "Louis Probasco, a young employee in the Brooklyn Water Works, probably the son of Samuel, listed as a cooper in the Brooklyn Directory of 1861-1862." I have therefore added the footnote 6 to this letter which reads, similar to Miller's text, "Louis Probasco was a young employee in the Brooklyn Water Works, was probably the son of Samuel Probasco, and was listed as a cooper in the Brooklyn Directory of 1861–1862. See Whitman's letter from January 16, 1863."

--Katie Kruger