'Pushing boundaries: African-Americans in Civil War Medicine'

Where: National Museum of Civil War Medicine, 48 East Patrick St., Frederick

When: Through Friday. The museum is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Saturday and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday

What: The traveling exhibit, titled "Binding Wounds, Pushing Boundaries: African-Americans in Civil War Medicine," was created by the Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health and details the history of African Americans who served in a medical capacity during the war.

One of those profiled is Maj. Alexander T. Augusta, who took a stand— nearly 100 years before Rosa Parks — against discrimination by refusing to give up his seat on a streetcar in Washington.

Augusta, one of 13 black surgeons to serve during the Civil War, was in uniform and on his way to testify at a court-martial when he was removed from a streetcar for refusing to stand up front with the driver, as was required of African-Americans, forcing him to walk to the hearing in the rain. In another instance, Augusta was attacked by a group of young white men while he was wearing his uniform on a train in Baltimore.

But the incidents didn't deter Augusta. "[M]y position as an officer of the United States, entitles me to wear the insignia of my office, and if I am either afraid or ashamed to wear them, anywhere, I am not fit to hold my commission," Augusta wrote in a letter to The Christian Recorder, an African-American newspaper.

How much: $6.50 for adults; $6 for seniors, students and active-duty military; $4.50 for children ages 10-16; and free for those under age 10.

What's nearby: The museum has another site at the Pry House Field Hospital Museum at Antietam National Battlefield in Sharpsburg, about 20 miles west of Frederick.

Information: Visit civilwarmed.org or call 301-695-1864.