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Photo of a young Anderson Ruffin Abbott (1837-1913) in the uniform of the Union Army. Ruffin was one of only eight black surgeons to serve in the Civil War.

Civil War exhibit in Maryland features black doctors

Catherine Saunders-Watson
Catherine Saunders-Watson
Photo of a young Anderson Ruffin Abbott (1837-1913) in the uniform of the Union Army. Ruffin was one of only eight black surgeons to serve in the Civil War.
Photo of a young Anderson Ruffin Abbott (1837-1913) in the uniform of the Union Army. Ruffin was one of only eight black surgeons to serve in the Civil War.

FREDERICK, Md. (AP) – The National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick is highlighting African-Americans who served as doctors and nurses during the war.

The exhibit developed by the National Library of Medicine opens Monday and runs through Jan. 28.

It features the achievements of medical workers including John DeGrasse of Massachusetts, the only black surgeon to serve in the field with his regiment.

Most black surgeons were assigned to military hospitals or recruiting stations because many white surgeons refused to serve alongside or beneath them on the battlefield.

The exhibit also features Georgia native Susie King Taylor, who wrote the only known published memoirs of an African-American Civil War nurse.

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AP-ES-12-13-10 0401EST