Yes. A journalist, poet, and wanderer—in the best sense of the word—Walt Whitman (1819–1892) self-published Leaves of Grass in 1855. It received some applause at the time, but has garnered much more since then. Whitman is considered one of the most original of all American poets. Whitman’s younger brother, George, enlisted in the New York Volunteers and eventually rose to the rank of colonel. The Whitman family crisis, however, took place when George was wounded at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862.