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Walt Whitman Biography, Volunteer Nurse
The Civil War Years
When the Civil War started in 1861, Whitman became a freelance writer and visited soldiers in New York hospitals. When his brother was wounded in 1862, Walt went to Fredericksburg, Virginia, to care for him and was so affected by what he saw on the battlefield that he volunteered to care for the soldiers.
He traveled with the wounded that were being transferred to Washington, planning to stay just a few days but stayed for 11 years.
At that time, there was no formal training for nurses. Those who called themselves nurses learned by doing and, for the most part, gave medicines, fed patients and kept the hospitals clean.
During the Civil War, male nurses outnumbered female nurses and, many times, were recovering soldiers. However, the huge number of wounded and sick soon made it necessary to allow women to be nurses as well.
Hospitals were set up all over Washington with only a few being in buildings that were built speci
