Binding Wounds, Pushing Boundaries: Exhibit Focuses on Blacks in Civil War Medicine

Courtesy Photo | A six-panel exhibit currently on display at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center salutes the often-overlooked contributions of African Americans in Civil War medicine. The exhibit is part of WRNMMC’s celebration of Black History Month and will be on display in the America Zone, first floor of Building 19, throughout February. “Binding Wounds, Pushing Boundaries; African American in Civil War Medicine,” comes to WRNMMC from the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM).  

UNITED STATES

02.06.2023

Story by Bernard Little 

Walter Reed National Military Medical Center

A six-panel exhibit currently on display at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center salutes the often-overlooked contributions of African Americans in Civil War medicine. The exhibit is part of WRNMMC’s celebration of Black History Month and will be on display in the America Zone, first floor of Building 19, throughout February.
“Binding Wounds, Pushing Boundaries; African American in Civil War Medicine,” comes to WRNMMC from the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM).
“I found out about this program [traveling exhibition] as an associate fellow (from 2018 to 2019) at NLM,” said Sarah Clarke, medical librarian for the Darnall Medical Library at WRNMMC. Clarke also sits in on WRNMMC’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. “One of my colleagues, Michele Mason-Coles, was also a NLM associate fellow, so our library has a great relationship with NLM and are happy to be hosting this exhibit.”
Dr. Robert Slawson, a volunteer from the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, Maryland, served as a guest docent Feb. 2 for the exhibit’s opening at WRNMMC.
A retired oncologist, Slawson began writing a book about black men and women who practiced medicine during the Civil War after attending a 2004 lecture focused on African American physicians in the war. He said many people do not realize there was a significant African American presence in medicine at that time. His book, "Prologue to Change: African-Americans in Medicine in the Civil War Era," details pre-Civil War medical school graduation for many of these African Americans and discusses the entry of African Americans into medical practice.
One of those highlighted in the exhibit at WRNMMC, as well as Slawson’s book, is Dr. Alexander Thomas Augusta, the Union Army’s first Black physician. Born in Norfolk, Va., Augusta sought a medical education in Canada after being denied admittance to medical school in the United States because of his color, Slawson explained.
"In April of 1863, Augusta was commissioned as a major in the Union Army, becoming the first African-American to get that position," Slawson added. "At the end of his tenure, Augusta was lieutenant colonel -- the first African-American to have that rank.” Also, Augusta taught anatomy in the medical department at Howard University from November 1868 to July 1877, becoming the first African American appointed to the faculty of the school and of any medical college in the U.S. Howard opened its doors in 1867.
Augusta was joined by Dr. Charles Purvis at Howard and the two were among the founders of Howard University Medical School. Purvis served Howard for more than 50 years, Slawson said. Prior to his service at Howard, Purvis was an assistant surgeon during the Civil War. He was also the first Black man to run a civilian hospital (Freedmen’s Hospital, predecessor to Howard University Hospital), and the first Black doctor to treat a sitting president when he tended to President James Garfield in 1881 after the president was shot by an assassin.
Slawson said although the number of African Americans in Civil War medicine was relatively small, the fact that there were African Americans serving as physicians and nurses was significant because “no other country in the world had African American physicians serving in the military at that time. We need to recognize what each segment of the population contributed to where we are today,” he added.
The exhibit also notes the service of Dr. William P. Powell, Jr., one of 13 African American surgeons who served during the Civil War. In May 1863, he was hired as a contract assistant surgeon at Contraband Hospital in Washington, D.C., a medical facility that cared for emancipated slaves known as contraband.
Among the nurses recognized in the exhibit is Susie King Taylor, known for being the first Black nurse during the American Civil War. Her memoirs are the only known published recollection of the experiences of an African American nurse during the Civil War. Taylor and Ann Stokes were former slaves who both served as caregivers for the sick and wounded during the war. Taylor treated the wounded on the battlefield, and Stokes served several years on a hospital ship. Stokes would go on to become the only African American woman to draw a Navy pension based on her own service during the Civil War.
"These people are really heroes as far as I'm concerned," Slawson said. "It was difficult for anybody to do, but it was especially difficult for them. And they deserve to be known and honored by not only African Americans, but by the entire country.”
To explore the exhibit online, visit https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/bindingwounds/exhibition.html.

• Date Taken: 02.06.2023
• Date Posted: 02.06.2023 13:16
• Story ID: 437927
• Location: US