This Day in History: 1825-03-08

Alexander Thomas Augusta, a surgeon, veteran of the American Civil War, and the first Black professor of medicine in the United States, is born. After gaining his medical education in Toronto in the Province of Canada, from 1850 to 1856, he set up a practice there. He returned to the United States shortly before the start of the American Civil War. Augusta offered his services to the United States Army and in 1863, he was commissioned as major and the Army’s first African-American physician; he became the first black hospital administrator in U.S. history while serving in the army. He left the army in 1866 at the rank of brevetlieutenant colonel. Learn more.