Whitman- "The Wound-Dresser"

Whitman wrote this poem as he tells children about his experiences with being a wound-dresser for civil war soldiers. He tells them of the hard times because there were so few joyous times. He speaks of the wounded all around the hospital and inside on cots, who he tried to help and felt so bad that he wished he could take their place. He sees so many men die who are forgotten and so many that wish they could die from the pain. He dresses many wounds, not giving up because the men need him. He remembers all the suffering he saw as a wound-dresser and thinks of all the men he saw die.

Whitman is struggling here, with a concept that haunts many. He saw so many forgotten after they died in the war, "like a swift-running river they fade, Pass and are gone they fade... While the world of gain and appearance and mirth goes on, So soon what is over forgotten, and waves wash the imprints off the sand." Life is full of pain and suffering, so what is the point of dealing with it all especially when your whole life will be forgotten. When death is inevitable, why not just die before one reaches the pain? "Come sweet death! be persuaded O beautiful death! In mercy come quickly." He understands that he needs to help these men but struggles with the reason of life when death is so beautiful, freeing oneself of pain and suffering.

Is this poem transcendentalist?