Susie King Taylor Serves as First Black Army Nurse

Susie King Taylor, formerly enslaved and self-taught to read, attached herself to the 1st South Carolina Volunteers (later 33rd USCT) at age 14. She served as nurse, laundress, and teacher for four years — the first Black woman to nurse U.S. troops openly. She later published her memoir Reminiscences of My Life in Camp (1902).