54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
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The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was one of the firstThe 1st South Carolina Volunteers, recruited from freed slaves, was the first Union Army regiment organized with African-American soldiers. The 54th Massachusetts was the first such regiment recruited from a Northern state. official African-American units in the United States armed forces, an infantry regiment that fought in the American Civil War. Black troops had fought alongside George Washington in the Revolutionary War and under Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812, but not organized as formal military units.
History
The regiment, organized in March 1863 by the Governor of Massachusetts, John A. Andrew, and commanded by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, sprang to life after the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation. Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton decided white officers would be in charge of all "colored" units, and Colonel Shaw was hand-picked by Gov. Andrew himself. The rest of the officers were painstakingly evaluated by Shaw. The soldiers were recruited by Caucasian abolitionists (including Shaw's parents). This recruitment group was later known as "The Black Committee". A number of the recruits were from states other than Massachusetts, with several coming from Pennsylvania and New York. Two of the recruits were sons of famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Soon afterwards, a second black regiment, the 55th Massachusetts, was organized and began training.
The 54th left Boston, to fight for the Union on May 28, 1863. The 54th started off performing only manual labor. The regiment gained notoriety in a raid on the town of Darien, Georgia, after being ordered to loot and burn the town by Col. James Montgomery. The 54th's participation in this raid was minimal and reluctant. Colonel Shaw initially objected to what he called a "Satanic action", but was forced to capitulate when Montgomery threatened to imprison Shaw and put the 54th directly under his own command. Montgomery's regiment was allowed to break ranks and loot at will, whereas Shaw's men were orderly and only took those supplies that would be useful at camp.
The regiment gained international fame on July 18, 1863, when it spearheaded an assault on Fort Wagner near Charleston, South Carolina. One hundred and sixteen of the unit's men were killed in the assault, including Colonel Shaw. Although the Union was not able to take and hold the exceptionally secure fort, the 54th was widely acclaimed for its valor, and the event helped encourage the further enlistment and mobilization of African-American troops, a key development that President Abraham Lincoln once noted as helping to secure the final victory. Decades later, William Harvey Carney, the flag bearer of the regiment during the attack, became the first African-American soldier to be awarded the Medal of Honor.
Ironically, during the week leading up to the 54th's heroic sacrifice near Charleston, simmering racial strife climaxed in the New York Draft Riots. African-Americans on the city's waterfront and Lower East Side were beaten, tortured, and lynched by white mobs angered over conscription for the Union war effort. These mobs directed their animosity toward blacks because they felt the Civil War was caused by them. However, the bravery of the 54th would help to assuage anger of this kind, although African-Americans would continue to suffer from discrimination for many years.
Later in the war, the 54th fought a rear-guard action covering the Union retreat at the Battle of Olustee. As part of an all-black brigade under Col. Alfred S. Hartwell, they unsuccessfully attacked entrenched Confederate militia at the November 1864 Battle of Honey Hill. In mid-April 1865, they fought at the Battle of Boykin's Mill, a small affair in South Carolina that proved to be one of the last engagements of the war.
Legacy
The regiment was disbanded after the Civil War and was eventually largely forgotten, aside from the monument (constructed 1884 – 1897) by Augustus Saint-Gaudens on the Boston Common, and the famous composition by Charles Ives based both on the monument and the regiment ("Col. Shaw and his Colored Regiment," the opening movement of Three Places in New England).
Colonel Shaw and his men also feature prominently in Robert Lowell's poem "For the Union Dead" (1964); some of the most powerful lines appearing in this stanza:
- Shaw's father wanted a monument
- where his son's body was thrown
- and lost with his 'niggers.'
More recently, the story of the unit was depicted in the 1989 Academy Award winning film Glory starring Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, and Morgan Freeman. The film reestablished the now-popular image of the combat role African-Americans played in the Civil War, and the unit, often played in historical battle reenactments, now has the nickname The Glory Regiment.
Notes
Further reading
- Emilio, Luis F., A Brave Black Regiment: A History of the 54th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry: 1863-1865 (Boston: The Boston Book Company, 1891).
External links
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