Born: 1848 Died: 1912 Biography: Susie King Taylor was born Susie Baker, a slave in 1848 on the Isle of Wight, off the coast of Georgia. When she was 7 years old, her owners permitted her to move to Savannah, Ga. to live with her grandmother. In those days it was illegal for slaves to receive an education, however, Susie's grandmother had a neighbor who ran a secret school for slaves. Susie went to this school every day and learned to read and write. In her memoirs Susie recalls: "We went every day about nine o'clock, with our books wrapped in paper to prevent the police or white persons from seeing them. We went in, one at a time, through the gate. After school we left the same way we entered, one by one." Shortly after the Civil War had begun, Susie escaped with her uncle's family to St. Catherine's Island, which was under Union control. She later moved to St. Simon's Island where she established a school for black children and adults. Many escaped male slaves served in the 33rd U.S. Colored Troops, the first African American regiment to be mustered into the Union Army. Sergeant Edward King was a member of this regiment. In 1862, Susie Baker married Edward King. Initially Susie was appointed laundress of the 33rd Colored Troops, but before long she was doing a lot more than laundry. At only 14 years old she was teaching members of her husband's regiment how to read and write. She also nursed the wounded men who came back to camp. For 4 years and 3 months Susie worked, nursing the wounded, free of charge. She was proud of her work and she took great pleasure in helping the men whom she referred to as her "comrades". On February 9, 1866 she and her husband mustered out of the 33rd. After the war, she and her husband Edward moved to Savannah, Ga. where she opened a private school for black children. Shortly after they moved to Savannah she became pregnant with their first child. Tragically, her husband died before the child was born. By 1868 Susie was reduced to working as cook and laundress, one of the few paying jobs open to African-American women at the time. In 1874 Susie headed North, settling in Boston, Mass. Although she continued working as a domestic, she felt there would be more opportunities for her in Boston. Most of her later life was dedicated to the Woman's Relief Organization, a national organization for female Civil War veterans, which was established in 1873. In 1879 she met and married Russell Taylor. The soldiers Susie nursed never forgot her, and many continued to write to her through the years. In 1902 Susie King Taylor published her autobiography entitled: Reminiscences of My Life in Camp: A Black Woman's Civil War Memoirs. In her book she said of her experience as a Civil War nurse, "It seems strange how our aversion to seeing someone suffering is overcome by war. How we are able to see the most sickening sights and instead of turning away, how we hurry to assist in alleviating their pain, and press cool water to their parched lips, with feelings of only sympathy and pity." Susie King Taylor died in 1912, 10 years after her book was published.