Anderson Ruffin Abbott - Civil War

Civil War

Abbott applied for a commission as an assistant surgeon in the Union Army in February 1863 but his offer was evidently not accepted. That April, he applied to be a “medical cadet” in the United States Colored Troops but was finally accepted as a civilian surgeon under contract. He served in Washington, D.C. from June 1863 to August 1865, first at the Contraband Hospital and then at the Freedman's Hospital. He then went to a hospital in Arlington, Virginia. Receiving numerous commendations and becoming popular in Washington society, Abbott was one of only eight black surgeons to serve in the Civil War, a fact that fostered a friendly relationship between him and the president. Abbott was among the group who stood vigil in Petersen House over the mortally-wounded Lincoln in April 1865, and Abbott kept "minutes" recording Lincoln's condition through the night before his death on April 15. Mary Todd Lincoln later presented Abbott with the plaid shawl that Lincoln had worn to his 1861 inauguration.