The Wound Dresser

The Wound Dresser gathers Whitman's letters and notes from his work as a volunteer nurse in Washington hospitals during the Civil War, edited and published after his death. He describes visiting wards, bringing small gifts, writing letters for soldiers and sitting with the sick and dying. The writing is plain and tender, and it gives a close, human view of the war away from the battlefield. It also sheds light on the experience behind his war poetry.