The Massachusetts 54th

The Massachusetts th 54

By: Brian Beeco and Nick DiGuilio

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The Massachusetts 54th was one of the first official all Black regiments in the United States armed forces.

This infantry unit fought during the Civil War. Black soldiers did fight during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 but they were never organized into a formal military unit.

After the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and the demand for new recruits, the Lincoln administration agreed to enlist black men. Only white men, however, could serve as officers.

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Colonel Robert Gould Shaw

The regiment, organized in March 1863 by the Governor of Massachusetts, John A. Andrew, and was commanded by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw.

Colonel Shaw was handpicked by Gov. Andrew himself. Shaw was the 25 year old son of very wealthy abolitionist parents.

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Soldiers were recruited by white abolitionists (including Shaw's parents). By the middle of May, over a thousand black men from 24 states (15 northern, five southern, and four Border States) had been accepted into the Massachusetts 54th Two of the recruits were sons of famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass

The 54th left Boston to fight for the Union on May 28, 1863

Frederick Douglass

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The regiment gained international fame on July 18, 1863, when it spearheaded an assault on Fort Wagner near Charleston, South Carolina. Of the six hundred men that stormed Fort Wagner, one hundred and sixteen were killed. Another hundred and fifty-six were wounded or captured.

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Colonel Shaw was also killed. He was buried in a common grave alongside 74 of his men. Although the Union was not able to take and hold the fort, the 54th was widely acclaimed for its valor, and the event helped encourage the further enlistment and mobilization of African-American troops.

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The Fifty-fourth continued to serve throughout the remainder of the war. They fought at Olustee, Florida; Honey Hill, South Carolina; and finally at Boykin's Mills, South Carolina.

Salary Conflict 

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The black soldiers were supposed be treated equally to the white, but unfortunately that wasn’t happening. When enlisted they were supposed to receive $13 a month, plus food and clothing. But they were only receiving $10 a month and $3 was coming out for clothing.

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Outraged by the obvious injustice, the men of the 54th Infantry refused to accept their pay, an act instigated by Colonel Shaw. On 15 June 1864, Massachusetts Senator Wilson’s proposal passed and black soldiers finally received the pay they deserved. In addition to providing for the new wages, the act also allowed that any black soldier who had enlisted in the army after 19 April 1861 was to be paid the difference of what they had made and what they should have made.

Legacy 

Decades later, Sergeant William Harvey Carney, who grabbed the US flag as the flag bearer fell and carried the flag to the enemy ramparts and back during the attack, became the first African-American soldier to be awarded the Medal of Honor.

Sergeant William Harvey Carney

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The 54th’s refusal of lesser pay and their heroics at Fort Wagner paved the way for equal treatment to all enlisted black soldiers during their time, as well as the more than 180,000 black soldiers that enlisted from 1863–65 as a direct result of the 54th's performance and publicity.

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The regiment's survivors received their discharge papers on September 1, 1865. Almost immediately the black community in Boston launched a drive to erect a memorial to the 54th. It would be more than 30 years before the memorial was completed. It took 12 years for the great American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens complete the memorial. It was unveiled on Memorial Day 1897.

The names of the five white officers killed in battle were inscribed on the back of the monument. It was only in 1981 that the names of the black soldiers killed in action were added.

The End http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rawwMraLLl4