Walt Whitman was called to Washington D.C. not to help with the war but to be with his brother. His brother had just come back from war because he was shot, then he was asked to help out which he did for 11 years. Walt Whitman used this instance to help fuel him in making this poem. The man that was shot in the abdomen that mere lad (11) was actually his brother. Whitman thought it would be better to have him die in the poem to make it more dramatic and writes this poem like his brother actually died, with so much emotion.