During our civil war John Burroughs and fellow writer Walt Whitman had low level government jobs in Washington D.C. Burroughs hated slavery but apparently not enough to take up arms(he was still in his 20's) Washingtons population ran about 65,000. Add to that 70,000 wounded mainly Union but also Confederate. Whitman lived in poverty spending almost his entire salary on things for the wounded, fruit, cookies etc: He gave freely to men from both sides.