The Medical College of the State of South Carolina (MCSSC), as it was known from 1832 until 1952, suspended classes after the March 1861 graduation, just three months after South Carolina seceded from the Union and a month before shots upon Fort Sumter marked the official commencement of hostilities between North and South. Almost immediately, many of the College's faculty, students, and alumni joined the Confederate military and the College was left dormant for five long years. Even while the College was on hiatus, its students, alumni, and faculty were getting an entirely new education in the field hospitals and on the battlefields.

" shares the stories of but a few of the hundreds of MCSSC's alumni, faculty and students who took their medical bags to war.

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(Image Description: “The

at Charleston, S.C. Intended to Assist in the Capture of Fort Sumpter[sic] with Dr. DeVega’s [sic] Hospital Attached.-From a sketch by our special agent now in Charleston.” The hospital is the structure with the two windows, on the right. Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, March 30, 1861.)