African American Troops In The Civil War The 54th Massachus Term paper

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African-American Troops in the Civil War: The 54th Massachusetts

The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts was organized in early 1863 by Robert Gould

Shaw, twenty-six year old member of a prominent Boston abolitionist family. Shaw had

earlier served in the Seventh New York National Guard and the Second Massachusetts

Infantry, and was appointed colonel of the Fifty-fourth in February 1863 by Massachusetts

governor John A. Andrew.

As one of the first black units organized in the northern states, the Fifty-fourth was

the object of great interest and curiosity, and its performance would be considered an

important indication of the possibilities surrounding the use of blacks in combat. The

regiment was composed primarily of free blacks from throughout the north, particularly

Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Amongst its recruits was Lewis N. Douglass, son of the

famous ex-slave and abolitionist, Frederick Douglass.

After a period of recruiting and training, the unit proceeded to the Department of

the South, arriving at Hilton Head, South Carolina, on June 3, 1863. The regiment earned

its greatest fame on July 18, 1863, when it led the unsuccessful and controversial assault

on the Confederate positions at Battery Wagner. In this desperate attack, the Fifty-fourth

was placed in the vanguard and over 250 men of the regiment became casualties. Shaw,

the regiment's young colonel, died on the crest of the enemy parapet, shouting, "Forward,

Fifty-fourth!"

That heroic charge, coupled with Shaw's death, made the regiment a household

name throughout the north, and helped spur black recruiting. For the remainder of 1863

the unit participated in siege operations around Charleston, before boarding transports for

Florida early in February 1864. The regiment numbered 510 officers and men at the

opening of the Florida Campaign, and its new commander was Edward N. Hallowell, a

twenty-seven year old merchant from Medford, Massachusetts. Anxious to avenge the

Battery Wagner repulse, the Fifty-fourth was the best black regiment available to General

Seymour, the Union commander.

Along with the First North Carolina Colored Infantry, the Fifty-fourth entered the

fighting late in the day at Olustee, and helped save the Union army from complete disaster.

The Fifty-fourth marched into battle yelling, "Three cheers for Massachusetts and seven

dollars a month." The latter referred to the difference in pay between white and colored

Union infantry, long a sore point with colored troops. Congress had just passed a bill

correcting this and giving colored troops equal pay. However, word of the bill would not

reach these troops until after the battle of Olustee. The regiment lost eighty-six men in the

battle, the lowest number of the three black regiments present. After Olustee, the Fifty-

fourth was not sent to participate in the bloody Virginia campaigns of 1864-1865. Instead

it remained in the Department of the South, fighting in a number of actions before

Charleston and Savannah. More than a century after the war the Fifty-fourth remains the

most famous black regiment of the war, due largely to the popularity of the movie

"Glory", which recounts the story of the regiment prior to and including the attack on

Battery Wagner.

To better show how the 54th felt underfire, here is a letter home from Orderly

Sergeant W.N. Collins of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry accounting Plotter's Raid.

"Well, we arrived at Georgetown, S.C., on the 3Ist (March 1865), and went into

camp. On the 1st of April we started upon our errand through the State, and had nothing

to molest us for three days. We saw nothing of the Johnnies, and on Friday the 8th of

April, at Epp's Ferry, Cos. H and A were detached from the regiment to go and destroy

the said Ferry. Myself, one corporal and fifteen privates were in the advance. On we went,

neither hearing nor seeing any thing in particular. After advancing about two miles, and

wading through water and mud, we spied a Johnny sitting upon his horse as a picket. He

left his post and secreted himself. Halting my men for further orders, I received

instructions to proceed forward with the utmost caution, and screen my men as much as

possible in the woods. The swamp through which we had to pass was waist-deep.

Onward we went, and after getting through the swamp, not over seventy-five

yards from Johnny, he saw that we were getting too close to him; and at that time the

Second-Lieutenant of Co. A came along, and I told him that Johnny was getting ready to

fire; and at that moment, Johnny's balls began to fall thick and fast around us.

The Lieutenant got wounded in the right arm. I had two men wounded - one in the

right leg, the other in both shoulders; and it appeared to us that the Johnnies had nothing

much but bird-shot to fire at us, which whizzed about our ears in perfect showers. The

writer got stung slightly in the left hand by one of these diminutive missiles from Johnny's

shot-gun. They saw that we...

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