During Walt Whitman''s decade in Washington, DC, 1863-1873, he labored intensely, at times seeming to have three lives at once. He wrote the most distinguished journalism of his career; came into his own as a writer of letters; crafted memorable Civil War poetry, Drum-Taps and Sequel to Drum-Taps and later folded it into heavily revised and expanded versions of Leaves of Grass; and produced his searching but also flawed critique of Americanculture, Democratic Vistas. Whitman''s work through the first three editions of Leaves often receives the highest praise, yet his writing in the Washington years is exceptional, too, by any reckoning-and is all the more remarkable given that he also cared for thousands of wounded and sick soldiers in Washington hospitals,serving as an attentive visitor. In addition, he served as a government clerk in various positions, most notably in the attorney general''s office when much was accomplished on the road toward a multi-racial democracy including effor
