A Slave Girl Becomes a Civil War Nurse

A Slave Girl Becomes a Civil War Nurse

Did you know …

Susie King Taylor was born in Georgia. Because her mother was a slave, Susie was a slave, too. She lived with her grandmother in Savannah and secretly attended school with her younger brother and sister because it was illegal for her to go to school.

The Civil War Begins

She was a teenager when the Civil War began in 1861. In April of 1862, Susie went with her uncle to Saint Catherine Island for the protection of the Union soldiers. Two weeks later, they were taken to Saint Simons Island, where about 600 black men, women, and children lived. Susie was then asked to lead a school for the children. Two large boxes filled with books and Bibles from the north were given to her. Around forty children attended her school. Several adults came to learn to read at night.

Susie travels with the Union Army

She married Edward King during the war. Edward was a sergeant in the First South Carolina Volunteers. This was the first black regiment in the Union Army. Hired as a laundress for the soldiers, Susie traveled with them.

While with the troops, Susie learned to shoot a musket and often hit the target. She helped clean the guns and could take a gun apart and put it back together.

Susie cooks and serves as nurse in army camp

She also cooked in the camp. They often ate soup made of dried vegetables. At that time, meat was preserved by smoking or salting. The soldiers ate salt beef, salt pork, or bacon. They also ate hardtack, a biscuit with small holes in it. Shaped like a square or rectangle, it resembled a cracker. Baked in northern factories, it sometimes took months for the food to reach the soldiers. By then, the biscuits were hard. Hardtack could be eaten plain or crumbled into fried pork.

She assisted the doctors in caring for the sick and wounded in any way she could.

Susie never forgot the brave soldiers

After serving during the war as a cook, nurse, teacher, and a laundress, Susie never forgot the soldiers who fought so bravely. She always wanted to do anything she could to make their lives easier.

Several years after the war, Susie still wanted to honor the soldiers. She helped organize the Corps 67, which was a chapter of the Women’s Relief Corps. She served as Secretary, Treasurer, Guard, and President of this corps.

– Sandra Merville Hart

 

 

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