54th Massachusetts Regiment

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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, Massachusett...