The daughter of Georgia slaves, Susie King Taylor (1848–1912) served as nurse and teacher in the Union army without pay. In 1862 she became the first African American teacher to freed slaves on St. Simon's Island, Georgia, and married an African American officer in the Union army, where she was the first black nurse to serve. Through her life she held a number of teaching posts.

The below excerpt is taken from Chapter 6 (‘On Morris and Other Islands’) of Taylor's Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33d United States Coloured Troops, Late 1st S.C. Volunteers, written in the 1890s, published in 1902. Fort Wagner on Morris Island was a heavily fortified location for guarding Charleston Harbour.

Mary A. Gardner Holland, who saw nursing experience herself, produced a commemorative collection in Our Army Nurses. Interesting Sketches, Addresses and Photographs of nearly One Hundred of the Noble Women who Served in Hospitals and on Battlefields during Our Civil War (Boston: B. Williams, 1895). She made no bones about her patriotic purpose, declaring: ‘It seems to me that had I died battling for my country's honour, that my right hand would almost leap from its entombed dust to strike back the arm that would dare drag our flag from its high standard of glory’ (17).