Dr. John H. Rapier, Jr.

African American Acting Assistant Surgeon   By Robert G. Slawson, M.D.   Dr. John Rapier, Jr. was the son of a slave who, on obtaining freedom, emigrated to Canada. Dr. Rapier began his life in Canada but, as ane. adult, traveled extensively to find a place to live. He subsequently came to the United States, first to Minnesota and then to Ohio.   He attended one year of classes at the Michigan Medical College, then went to the Iowa College In Keokuk, Iowa. In 1863 he became the first African American to be graduated from a medical school west of the Mississippi River.   Upon graduation he sought and obtained an appointment as Acting Assistant Surgeon, serving at Freedman's Hospital in Washington, D.C.   FROM: "The Journal of Civil War Medicine", Vol. 7, No. 2, April/May/June 2003

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Dr. Cortlandt Van Rensselaer Creed

The first African American graduate of Yale Medical School

From: Yale School of Public Health

Cortlandt Van Rensselaer Creed, MD 1857, the first African American graduate of Yale Medical School, was the first person of African descent to receive a degree in any discipline from Yale. Only a very small number of African Americans had previously received medical degrees from U.S. institutions before Dr. Creed, and none from the Ivy schools.  

His Yale MD thesis was entitled “On the Blood” – a discourse on the physiology and chemistry of blood and circulation. Despite what Dr. Creed described in one of his letters to Douglas as a prevailing national sentiment of “prejudice against color,” he reported, “I never experienced any other than the most polite treatment from my fellow class-mates.”

Dr. Creed remained in New Haven after graduation from Yale and developed a large, successful, ethnically-mixed medical practice. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he wrote to Connecticut Governor Buckingham requesting a commission to serve, but was refused because of his race.

In 1863,   President Lincoln authorized the recruitment of African American troops and the Connecticut governor issued a call to arms to men of color. Creed wrote, “On every side we behold colored sons rallying to the sound of Liberty and Union.” He was appointed 1st Lieutenant and Surgeon of the 31st Regiment U.S. Colored Troops 1864 (30th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry Regiment) and served until the end of the Civil War.  

Dr. Creed married Drucilla Wright with whom he had four sons. After her death, he married Mary Paul of Brooklyn, New York with whom he had six children. He briefly practiced in New York but returned to New Haven for the rest of his career. Cited frequently in the local news and The New York Times for his medical and forensic skills, he was consulted for a surgical opinion at the time of President Garfield’s assassination.  

Dr. Creed died from “Bright’s disease” on August 8th, 1900 and was buried in the family plot in Grove Street Cemetery.

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Susie King Taylor

African American Army Nurse and Teacher

From: U.S. National Library of Medicine

Nurses, both women and men, worked for the Union Army in hospitals and on battlefields. Though most had no formal training, they provided care and comfort to thousands of soldiers and civilians. Susie King Taylor and Ann Stokes were former slaves who gained their freedom as the Union took over Confederate strongholds in the South. Once under the protection of the Union Army, these women took an active role in the fight for freedom by becoming nurses to wounded soldiers.

As a young slave girl, Susie King Taylor had been secretly taught to read and write. Her abilities proved invaluable to the Union Army as they began to form regiments of African American soldiers.

Hired by the 1st South Carolina Colored Volunteers as a laundress in 1862, her primary role was nurse to wounded soldiers and teacher to those who could not read or write. Taylor served for more than three years working alongside her husband, Edward King, a sergeant in the regiment.

Susie King Taylor's memoirs [ Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33rd United States Colored Troops Late 1st S.C. Volunteers, Susie King Taylor, 1902] are the only known published recollection of the experiences of an African American nurse during the Civil War.

In a letter to Taylor, reproduced in her book, Lt. Colonel Trowbridge, commander of the regiment, praises her "unselfish devotion and service through more than three long years of war in which the 33d Regiment bore a conspicuous part in the great conflict for human liberty and the restoration of the Union."

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Charlotte Forten

African American Civil War Nurse From the U.S. National Library of Medicine Charlotte Forten was born in Philadelphia in 1837 and was the first African American to travel south in 1862, to teach former slaves during the Civil War. Spending much of her time in South Carolina, she volunteered as a nurse in the summer of 1863, caring for wounded soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment of the United States Colored Infantry after their defeat at Fort Wagner. Although her time as a nurse was brief due to illness, she understood the impact nurses made on wounded soldiers. While capturing her hospital observations in a daily journal, she noted this about a nineteen year old soldier, "He is very badly wounded…in both legs…this poor fellow suffers terribly. But he utters no complaint, and it is touching to see his gratitude for the least kindness that one does him."

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Dr. Anderson Ruffin Abbott

African American Acting Surgeon, Freedman's Hospital  By Robert G. Slawson, M.D., F.A.C.R.   Dr. Anderson Ruffin Abbott grew up in Canada. he attended Oberlin College in Ohio and returned to Toronto. Abbott spent four years apprenticed to Dr. Alexander T. Augusta and began medical school.   In 1861 he received a medical license from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. (This is the official name of the medical society of the province of Ontario).   In 1863 when Dr. Augusta [Dr. Alexander Thomas Augusta, the first African American to receive a commission in the Army) entered the Army, Dr. Abbott applied for military service. At that time he stated he would be receiving his Bachelor of Medicine degree from the University of Toronto in the spring of 1863.   In September 1863, Dr. Abbott was appointed Acting Surgeon and assigned to Freedman's Hospital. He worked in several hospitals serving colored troops and former slaves in Washington.   In 1866 Dr. Abbott returned to Canada and to his practice and training. He received a Bachelor of Medicine degree in 1867, not at the University of Toronto, but at the affiliated Toronto College of Medicine.   In 1869 Dr. Abbott became a member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario and, at one time, the President of the Kent County Medical Society. In 1874 he was appointed Coroner of Kent County.   FROM: "The Journal of Civil War Medicine", Vol. 7, No.2, April/May/June 2003

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Dr. Charles Burleigh Purvis

The First African American to Head a Civilian Hospital By Mackenzie Lanum Charles Burleigh Purvis, surgeon and medical educator, was instrumental in the development of Howard University’s medical department. On July 2, 1881 Purvis was one of the attending physicians following the assassination of President James A. Garfield. Purvis was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 14, 1842 to abolitionists Robert Purvis Sr. and Harriet Forten. One of eight children, Purvis’ early education was in Quaker schools in Burberry, Pennsylvania. At the age of eighteen he enrolled in Oberlin College in Ohio, earning a bachelor’s degree in science in 1863. He then entered medical school at Wooster Medical College (renamed Western Reserve Medical School) in Cleveland, graduating two years later in 1865. After medicals Purvis enlisted in the Union Army as an acting assistant surgeon. He was stationed at Fort Campbell Army Hospital as both a nurse and a surgeon during the Civil War and was later one of six black physicians posted at Freedman’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. After his enlistment ended in 1869 he began teaching at Howard University down the street from the hospital.  In 1871 he married Ann Hathaway from Eastport, Maine.  The couple had two children, Alice and Robert.   Purvis continued training black doctors at Howard University, known on campus for his strict teaching and high standards. In addition to teaching, Purvis became an assistant surgeon at nearby Freedman’s Hospital, a dual role that would eventually create the intimate teaching relationship between the hospital and the university. In 1873 he switched specialties and began teaching obstetrics, gynecology and pediatrics, and was also appointed secretary of the faculty, a position he held until 1986. His tenure, however, proved to be particularly trying with the onset of a national financial crisis. Only because of Purvis’ selflessness and perseverance was Howard University’s Medical Department able to keep its doors open. Purvis, as well as many other faculty members, began to teach while receiving little, if any, salary. In 1881, the year that Purvis became the first African American to head a civilian hospital, U.S. President James Garfield was shot at Washington’s Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station. Garfield was sequestered to the station’s second floor and was attended to by several physicians, including Purvis. Garfield died eleven weeks days later, becoming the second U.S. president to be assassinated. Purvis continued to serve as faculty secretary of Howard University as well as surgeon-in-chief at Freedmen’s until the mid-1890s.  In 1890 he became the president of the Howard University faculty. In 1898 his wife Ann died. Three years later Purvis married Jennie Butman from Manchester, New Hampshire. In 1903 Purvis fought Congress’ proposal to shut down Freedman’s Hospital, succeeding instead to get the District of Columbia to construct its new municipal hospital on Howard University’s grounds. The next year Purvis passed the Massachusetts State Board exams and was admitted to the Massachusetts Medical Society, just in time for his 1905 relocation to Boston, Massachusetts. In 1907 he resigned from Howard University’s medical faculty but remained on the Board of Trustees until 1926.  Charles Purvis died on December 14, 1929 in Boston at the age of 87. FROM: http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/purvis-charles-burleigh-1842-1929

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Freedmen's Hospital

From: Cultural Tourism D.C.

Freedmen's Hospital, the predecessor to Howard University Hospital, was established during the Civil War to address the needs of thousands of African Americans who poured into the city seeking freedom. An initiative of the federal government, it was quickly incorporated into Howard University, eventually developing into a first-rate medical campus. The current building on the site is the Seeley G. Mudd Building of the Howard University College of Medicine, containing classrooms and offices.

The hospital for freedmen was established in 1862 by the secretary of war on land bounded by R, S, 12th, and 13th streets, NW. It was officially named Freedmen's Hospital in 1863. Dr. Alexander T. Augusta (1825-1890), a surgeon of the U.S. Army and a major, was placed in charge of the hospital. He was one of eight black doctors then commissioned in the U.S. Army. The hospital's original one-story frame buildings were razed in 1865 for new quarters on Vermont Avenue, NW, between L and M streets. Another move occurred later that same year to Campbell Hospital, located on the northeast corner of Seventh and Boundary (Florida Avenue) streets. In 1869 the hospital moved to property owned by Howard University at the corner of Fifth and W streets, NW. The hospital also became the teaching hospital for the university.

After Dr. Augusta's tenure ended in 1877, the next major physician to head the hospital was Dr. Daniel Hale Williams (1858-1931), who led the staff from 1894 to 1898. Dr. Williams was followed by Dr. William A. Warfield, Jr., and then Dr. Charles R. Drew.

In 1908, a more state-of-the-art facility was built on College Street, and a tuberculosis annex was completed on Bryant Street in 1941. Both of those buildings stand today, occupied by Howard University offices and the College of Nursing, respectively.

In 1975, Freedmen's Hospital was renamed Howard University Hospital and moved to Georgia and Florida avenues, NW, the former site of Griffith Stadium.

FROM: http://www.culturaltourismdc.org/things-do-see/freedmens-hospital-african-american-heritage-trail

IMAGE: Sketch of Freedmen's Village, printed in "Harper's Weekly", May 7, 1864

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Confederate Nurse Anna Etheridge

CONFEDERATE NURSE Anna Etheridge
By Robert Joseph Sonntag


(From the excellent website, Florida Regiment Medical Department, http://www.2ndflvlhi.com/MedicalHome.htm)


“Michigan Annie” as she was known was from Detroit Michigan and joined the 2nd Michigan Volunteer Infantry, Army of the Potomac in 1861. Also known as "Gentle Annie" she often was found on the front lines caring for the wounded. She was given a horse and two navy colt pistols to protect herself. She wore them but never fired a shot. Annie carried medicine and bandages onto the battlefield and encouraged and inspired men to fight on.

At Gettysburg amidst cannon shot ...a woman on horseback and in uniform galloped back and forth from the line of battle. It was Anna Etheridge and she was directing the removal of the wounded. She went on to care for the wounded in 32 battles and was made a Sergeant by Gen. Philip Kearny right before he was killed at Chantilly.

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