On a cold February night in 1864, two Union officers in full dress uniform came to the brightly festooned White House to attend a reception. Although Lieutenant Anderson R. Abbott and Major Alexander T. Augusta were greeted warmly by President Abraham Lincoln, the other guests were less welcoming, most simply looking on with amazement. The two officers, after all, were both African American U.S. Army surgeons.
As Jill Newmark points out in her new book, more
