Robert Shaw's 54th Colored Regiment
The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment was the first all African American regiment to serve in the United States military. This was all made possible by Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. The regiment came out of Boston, but very few of the men actually came from Massachusetts. Only around 133 of the more than 1,000 troops came from Massachusetts. The men came from all over the country; North, South, and even Canada. Governor Andrew of Massachusetts initially wanted the regiment to be all African American (officers and enlisted), but the public deemed it too controversial. Instead, the regiment consisted of white officers and African American enlisted men.
The leader of the regiment was Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. He was born into one of the wealthiest abolitionist families in Boston. Because of this, Colonel Shaw grew up with many other well-known abolitionists such as the Garrisons. Even though the regiment was ridiculed throughout the beginning of the war, Colonel Shaw proudly fought for their rights and equality in the armed forces. They had to fight for equal pay and to obtain proper equipment. Because of his upbringing, he saw his troops as people not as an experiment. Many people did not believe African Americans would be able to fight in the “white man’s war.”
The 54th proved their worth at the Battle of Fort Wagner. The regiment lost an outrageous amount of soldiers, including their young leader. The battle was a horrible loss, but the men showed incredible bravery. Sergeant William Carney of the 54th was the first African American to earn the Congressional Medal of Honor after being wounded multiple times trying to rescue the American flag at Fort Wagner. Numerous enlisted men became officers because of their courage.
The monument to the 54th that stands in Boston Common was erected in 1897 to show respect to the remarkable unit that proved African American men were able to honorably defend America. Originally, the only names on the monument were the white officers, but in 1984 the names of sixty-two infantrymen who all died at Fort Wagner were added to the monument.
By: Jessica McKenzie
Credits and Sources:
Blatt, Martin H., Thomas J. Brown, and Donald Yacovone. Hope and Glory: Essays on the Legacy of the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Regiment. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2001.
Duncan, Russell. Where Death and Glory Meet: Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Infantry. Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press, 1999.
Massachusetts Historical Society. "54th Regiment." Massachusetts Historical Society. Accessed September 12, 2016. http://www.masshist.org/online/54thregiment/essay.php?entry_id=528
O’Connor, Thomas H. Boston: A to Z. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000.
