Black Surgeon Alexander Augusta writes about the discrimination his wife endured on the train from Baltimore to Washington, D.C.
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Title
Black Surgeon Alexander Augusta writes about the discrimination his wife endured on the train from Baltimore to Washington, D.C.
Description
A.T. Augusta (surgeon, 7th USCT) to Maj. Gen. Lewis Wallace (cmdg Middle Department & 8th Army Corps) alleging that the Baltimore & Ohio R.R. charges Black passengers the same fare yet forces them into the front car of the train, which is filled with tobacco smoke and all sorts of people. "It makes no difference how respectable a colored lady may be; how disagreable smoking may be to her; or how ill she might be, the employees about the depot will not permit her to enter another car, and should she by chance get into another and is found there, she is rudely thrust out." Gives exmample of his wife and another Black woman expelled from their car and forced into the smoking car.
Date
1/20/1865
Coverage
Baltimore, MD
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
Black Surgeon to the Middle Department Commander
Balt [Md.] Jan 20/65
General, I have the honor to lay before you a disability that the colored people have to labor under, in travelling between this City and Washington Which I am of the opinion if you will be kind enough to call the attention of the President of the Balt and Ohio to, will be removed.
The company exacts of colored passengers the same fare it does for White, and then huddles them together in the front car with all sorts of persons, where smoking of pipes and segars continue all the time, and where they are subject to insults. It makes no differece how respectable a colored lady may be; how disagreable smoking may be to her; or how ill she might be, the Employees about the depot will not permit her to enter any other car, and should she by chance get into another and is found there, she is rudely thrust out
The following occurence took place with me to day. I accompanied my wife and another lady to the depot, that they might take the three thirty train for Washington and procured their tickets, after which they entered a car, when a man whom I learned to be one John Wright, followed them, and compelled them to leave that car under the penalty of being put off the train, and go into the front one, where they were nearly stiffled, by the fumes of tabacco.
They were obliged at the risk of taking cold, to hoist the window in order to breathe. In fact they both felt quite sick. Just behind them sat two rough white men, who indulged in insulting langange. I appealed to the ticket agent and he said had nothing to do with the cars. I then spoke to a person by the name of Showacre whose duty it is to superintend the seating of passengers, and he stated that, that was the only car colored persons could ride in. Lastly, I appealed to the Conductor, and he said the President made the rules and they had to carry them out
Now General, I submit that it is unfair for the company to practice such an outrage upon us, and I most respectfully claim your protection in the premises, as a United States Officer.
Nor is that the only company that pactices these impositions upon us, for all others, whose trains leave the city, does the same.
At the Baltimore and Philadelphia depot there are certain trains in which they will not allow colored persons go on at all. Notwithstanding, their business may be ever so urgent.
Another great inconvenience is, they refuse to sell them through tickets to New York, thereby often times putting them to an extra expence, and detaining them in Philadelphia from ten to twelve hours. Should a strange colored person not acquainted with these regulations, come there at the hours, which they are not permitted to go on, a policeman is standing by backed up by the Provost guard to put him out
Only a few weeks since an altercation took place at the Washington depot, and I apprehend that unless a stop is put to these outrages, a serious difficulty may occur.
Hoping General, you will use your good offices to remove these unjust rules, I remain Your obedient Servant
A. T. Augusta.
Surgeon A. T. Augusta to Major General L. Wallace, 20 Jan. 1865, A-63 1865, Letters Received, ser. 2343, Middle Dept. and 8th Army Corps, RG 393 Pt. 1 [C-4147].
Balt [Md.] Jan 20/65
General, I have the honor to lay before you a disability that the colored people have to labor under, in travelling between this City and Washington Which I am of the opinion if you will be kind enough to call the attention of the President of the Balt and Ohio to, will be removed.
The company exacts of colored passengers the same fare it does for White, and then huddles them together in the front car with all sorts of persons, where smoking of pipes and segars continue all the time, and where they are subject to insults. It makes no differece how respectable a colored lady may be; how disagreable smoking may be to her; or how ill she might be, the Employees about the depot will not permit her to enter any other car, and should she by chance get into another and is found there, she is rudely thrust out
The following occurence took place with me to day. I accompanied my wife and another lady to the depot, that they might take the three thirty train for Washington and procured their tickets, after which they entered a car, when a man whom I learned to be one John Wright, followed them, and compelled them to leave that car under the penalty of being put off the train, and go into the front one, where they were nearly stiffled, by the fumes of tabacco.
They were obliged at the risk of taking cold, to hoist the window in order to breathe. In fact they both felt quite sick. Just behind them sat two rough white men, who indulged in insulting langange. I appealed to the ticket agent and he said had nothing to do with the cars. I then spoke to a person by the name of Showacre whose duty it is to superintend the seating of passengers, and he stated that, that was the only car colored persons could ride in. Lastly, I appealed to the Conductor, and he said the President made the rules and they had to carry them out
Now General, I submit that it is unfair for the company to practice such an outrage upon us, and I most respectfully claim your protection in the premises, as a United States Officer.
Nor is that the only company that pactices these impositions upon us, for all others, whose trains leave the city, does the same.
At the Baltimore and Philadelphia depot there are certain trains in which they will not allow colored persons go on at all. Notwithstanding, their business may be ever so urgent.
Another great inconvenience is, they refuse to sell them through tickets to New York, thereby often times putting them to an extra expence, and detaining them in Philadelphia from ten to twelve hours. Should a strange colored person not acquainted with these regulations, come there at the hours, which they are not permitted to go on, a policeman is standing by backed up by the Provost guard to put him out
Only a few weeks since an altercation took place at the Washington depot, and I apprehend that unless a stop is put to these outrages, a serious difficulty may occur.
Hoping General, you will use your good offices to remove these unjust rules, I remain Your obedient Servant
A. T. Augusta.
Surgeon A. T. Augusta to Major General L. Wallace, 20 Jan. 1865, A-63 1865, Letters Received, ser. 2343, Middle Dept. and 8th Army Corps, RG 393 Pt. 1 [C-4147].
Collection
Citation
“Black Surgeon Alexander Augusta writes about the discrimination his wife endured on the train from Baltimore to Washington, D.C.,” Black Maryland in the Civil War—A Microedition of the Freedmen and Southern Society Project, accessed June 8, 2026, https://fssp.artinterp2.org/items/show/24.