receives "little or no attention." During his transfer to the Washington hospitals, he is treated like a commodity when put "in an open platform car; (such as hogs are transported upon north,)"--and his treatment during this journey is such that it "caused him a great injury--nearly cost him his life." Reaching the Washington hospitals, he is treated so callously that he collapses, his "half-frozen and lifeless body [falling]
limpsy" in the hands of his attendants, "plainly insensible, perhaps dying." Whitman finds him at this point and begins to associate with him.