{"id":28487,"date":"2024-02-15T09:00:57","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T14:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/?p=28487"},"modified":"2024-03-15T08:39:02","modified_gmt":"2024-03-15T12:39:02","slug":"witness-to-history-anderson-r-abbott-civil-war-surgeon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2024\/02\/15\/witness-to-history-anderson-r-abbott-civil-war-surgeon\/","title":{"rendered":"Witness to History: Anderson R. Abbott, Civil War Surgeon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Circulating Now welcomes historian Jill L. Newmark to share the story of Dr. Anderson R. Abbott and her research in the National Library of Medicine’s Anderson Ruffin Abbott Papers<\/a>.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

On a winter evening in February 1864, two U.S. Army officers appeared at the White House in their dress uniforms to attend a reception.\u00a0 The warm welcome they received from President Abraham Lincoln would not have been unusual for a White House guest, but the protests from Lincoln\u2019s son Robert about receiving these two visitors and allowing \u201cthis innovation\u201d made it apparent that this was not a usual occurrence.\u00a0 That evening, two Black army officers, First Lieutenant Anderson R. Abbott and Major Alexander T. Augusta<\/a>, made history by attending a levee at the White House.<\/p>\n

\"Photographs<\/a>
First Lieutenant Anderson R. Abbott (left) and Major Alexander T. Augusta (right)
Photograph of Augusta courtesy Oblate Sisters of Providence, Baltimore, Maryland<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A<\/a>
Anderson R. Abbott in uniform, c. 1863
Courtesy Toronto Public Library<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2010, the National Library of Medicine\u2019s History of Medicine Division acquired the papers of Anderson Ruffin Abbott as a donation from his great-granddaughter, Catherine Slaney.\u00a0 The collection includes documents and writings by Abbott that illuminate his education, his experience as a military surgeon, and his thoughts on politics, science, and philosophy.\u00a0 Abbott was one of fourteen Black men who served as a surgeon with the Union Army during the American Civil War.\u00a0 As part of this elite group of physicians, he tended to the medical needs of Black soldiers of the United States Colored Troops and Black civilians in Washington, D.C.\u00a0 The materials in the Anderson Ruffin Abbott Papers<\/a> include lecture tickets from medical school, personal writings on astronomy and history, and biographical vignettes.<\/p>\n

Born in Ontario, Canada in 1837, Abbott grew up in a family dedicated to advancement, education, and service.\u00a0 His parents were born in the United States, but after marrying, they immigrated from Alabama to Canada to escape the harsh treatment, discrimination, and threats against their family and their business on account of color.\u00a0 Slavery had been abolished in Canada in 1834 with no legal means for white enslavers to repossess a formerly enslaved person once that individual crossed into Canada.\u00a0 It became a safe haven for those escaping enslavement and the harsh prejudice and violence in America.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Astronomy Lecture Notes, ca 1890s
Anderson Ruffin Abbott Papers, National Library of Medicine #101549027<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Establishing their family in Toronto, the Abbotts became involved in social and religious activities.\u00a0 They became a well-established family acquiring real estate and supporting their community through their service.\u00a0 Their wealth enabled them to provide an education for their children including attendance at the Buxton Mission School in the Elgin Settlement in Buxton, Ontario.\u00a0 Established by a white Presbyterian minister, the settlement offered social and economic opportunities for Black people especially the formerly enslaved who crossed the border into Canada from the United States.<\/p>\n

The Buxton Mission School provided a progressive education to its students, and it became one of the first racially integrated schools in North America. Among its early students was Anderson R. Abbott who excelled at academics and developed an interest in pursuing a career in medicine.\u00a0 After completing his education at the Buxton Mission School, he continued his formal education at Oberlin College in Ohio in 1856, a school with a reputation for abolitionist activities.\u00a0 Abbott would finally pursue his medical education in earnest two years later at the University of Toronto\u2019s School of Medicine.\u00a0 He became the first Black Canadian-born licentiate of the Medical Board of Upper Canada giving him the credentials to practice medicine.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Lecture ticket, Toronto School of Medicine, 1858-59
Anderson Ruffin Abbott Papers, National Library of Medicine #101549027<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, many Black Canadians and American expatriates kept a careful eye on the progress of the war and expressed an interest in participating in the fight for freedom in the United States.\u00a0 In 1863, when a local Toronto newspaper reported that the United States would begin the recruitment of Black men, Abbott followed in the footsteps of his mentor Alexander T. Augusta, the first black man to be commissioned as a medical officer in the U.S. Army, and he applied for a position as surgeon with the newly formed colored troops.\u00a0 His desire to participate was not deterred by geographic boundaries or birthplace.\u00a0 He said:<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a Canadian first and last and all the time, but that did not deter me from sympathizing with a nation struggling to wipe out a great iniquity.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"A<\/a>
Contract with a Private Physician, June 26, 1863
Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In June, he was offered a contract position as an acting assistant surgeon and assigned to Contraband Hospital in Washington, D.C. to serve under the direction of his friend and mentor Major Augusta. After his arrival in Washington, he became acquainted with Elizabeth Keckly<\/a>, seamstress and confidante to First Lady Mary Lincoln, who lived in the same boarding house as Abbott.\u00a0 Their friendship would become an important part of Abbott\u2019s life in Washington.\u00a0 The positions that Abbott and Augusta held as military surgeons provided entr\u00e9e into social and political circles previously unavailable to Black people and with the help of Keckly brought them to the White House to mingle with the elite of the city.<\/p>\n

On a cold evening in February 1864, Abbott and Augusta made their way to the White House to attend a reception.\u00a0 In their full-dress uniforms, they entered the White House porch that evening, and as Abbott recalled in his later years, the Executive Mansion was a \u201cblaze of light with carriages containing handsomely dressed ladies, citizens and soldiers.\u201d\u00a0 After being met at the door, they were escorted to the reception line and were warmly welcomed by the president.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
White House, c. 1865
Courtesy Historical Society of Washington, D.C.<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As they walked into the East Room of the White House, they were the focus of everyone\u2019s attention.\u00a0 Abbott recalled, \u201cWe could not have been more surprised ourselves or created more surprise if we had been dropped down upon them through a sky-light.\u201d\u00a0 It was clear to Abbott that their presence at the White House was controversial and garnered mixed reactions from those in attendance.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cWherever we went a space was cleared for us and we became the center of a new circle of interest.\u00a0 Some stared at us merely from curiosity, others with an expression of friendly interest.\u00a0 While others again scowled at us in such a significant way that left no doubt as to what views they held on the Negro question.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After the war ended in 1865, Abbott remained in Washington, D.C. continuing his work at Contraband Hospital now Freedman\u2019s Hospital until his contract expired in 1866.\u00a0 He returned to Canada and went on to earn his Bachelor in Medicine from the University of Toronto in 1867 and became a registered member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1869.\u00a0 He married and started a family and continued his work as a physician and activist.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Color lithograph of Freedmen\u2019s Hospital, c. 1864
Courtesy Historical Society of Washington, D.C.<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Abbott became the first Black coroner of Kent County in 1874, and by 1881, he retired from his position as coroner and re-established a medical practice.\u00a0 He would eventually move to Chicago and serve as superintendent of Provident Hospital and Training School, the first black owned and operated hospital in the United States after the departure of its founder Dr. Daniel Hale Williams in 1894.<\/p>\n

Abbott returned to Canada several years later and continued to lecture and write, and would begin writing a memoir, recalling his experiences in the Civil War and his opinions of life, work and history.\u00a0 On December 13, 1913, Abbott died as a result of complications from an appendectomy.<\/p>\n

Throughout Abbott\u2019s life he revealed himself to be a man of deep convictions with a strong moral compass, a sense of humanity, and a dedication to equality, knowledge, freedom, and patriotism.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>Jill L. Newmark is an independent historian and former curator and exhibition specialist at the National Library of Medicine.\u00a0 She curated several exhibitions for NLM including <\/em>Binding Wounds, Pushing Boundaries:\u00a0 African Americans in Civil War Medicine<\/a>.\u00a0 Her recent book, <\/em>Without Concealment, Without Compromise: The Courageous Lives of Black Civil War Surgeons<\/a> explores the lives and service of fourteen Black physicians who served as surgeons during the American Civil War.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anderson R. Abbott is among 13 known African Americans that served as surgeons during the American Civil War and one of only two that were commissioned officers in the U.S. Army.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19605840,"featured_media":28500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12763,2029,347145303],"tags":[168941,89892,517998,488,541893,210463,678875950],"class_list":["post-28487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-collections","category-exhibitions","category-rare-books-journals","tag-african-american-history","tag-american-civil-war","tag-manuscript","tag-military","tag-physician","tag-abraham-lincoln","tag-race"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Abbott-lecture-ticket_1859_feature.jpg?fit=900%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3xcDk-7pt","jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19605840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28487"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28532,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28487\/revisions\/28532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}