Reminiscences of My Life in Camp
With the 33d United States Colored Troops, Late 1st S.C. Volunteers

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice.
A ground-level witness to the American Civil War, Susie King Taylor’s remarkable memoir stands as the only published record of its kind by an African American woman.

Born into enslavement in Georgia, Susie King Taylor secured her freedom during the opening years of the war and attached herself to the 1st South Carolina Volunteers, the first federally recognized Black regiment. Working alongside her husband, Taylor served the Union cause not as a passive observer, but as an indispensable nurse, educator, laundress, and companion to the soldiers on the front lines.

Her narrative captures the daily realities of military encampments across the Sea Islands with unvarnished clarity. Taylor recounts tending to the wounded, cleaning muskets, and running covert schools to teach formerly enslaved men how to read and write, all amidst the relentless threat of combat, disease, and naval bombardment.

Beyond the battlefield, the memoir offers a biting commentary on the post-Reconstruction South and the nation’s betrayal of civil rights promises. Taylor writes with a voice that is both profoundly compassionate toward her comrades and fiercely indignant at the persistence of Jim Crow racism in a country preserved by Black blood.

Reminiscences of My Life in Camp is a vital, indelible work of American history. Essential for readers of Civil War history and African American literature, Taylor’s testimony remains an extraordinary chronicle of courage, labor, and the enduring fight for true liberation.