Civil war 54th massachusettes
Civil war-54th massachusettesThe Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts was established in early 1863 under the direction of colonel Robert Gould Shaw. Shaw was only twenty six years old when he was put in charge of the regiment. He came from a strong abolitionist family in Boston before the war. Before gaining his position as the colonel of the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts, Shaw served in the Seventh New York National guard and the Second Massachusetts infantry. In February 1863, Shaw was apointed by Massachusetts govoner John A. Andrew to lead the first all black Union regiment, the Fighting Fifty-Fourth, into the Civil War.
President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1. Within weeks, on January 26, the Secretary of War authorized Governor John Andrew of Massachusetts to raise the first African American corps in the North. Prejudicial beliefs that blacks would lack military discipline and fight badly set a negative attitude, but Andrew, a strong abolitionist, supported enlistment of African Americans.
Recruitment began in Boston on February 9. By February 21, barracks were readied at Camp Meigs in Readville, outside Boston. Massachusetts had only a small black community, so recruits were enlisted from other states including New York, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, and even Canada. Among the enlisted men were Frederick Douglass' sons Charles and Lewis.
Reaction from the South to black recruitment was swift. The Confederate Congress issued a proclamation that African Americans captured in uniform would be sold into slavery, and white officers of such troops would be executed. Though not carried out, the threat was a grave challenge to every recruit and officer of the Massachusetts 54th. Among those calling for the authorization of black soldiers in the Civil War was Frederick Douglass, who felt that military service would signal African Americans' freedom from slavery and citizenship status. Douglass said, "Let the slaves and free colored people be called into service, and formed into a liberating army, to march into the South and raise the banner of emancipation among the slaves....Men of Color, To Arms!"
Training began as soon as recruits began arriving and continued until the regiment sailed to its first post. On May 12, the 54th reached its full number of 1,000 soldiers. At Colonel Shaw's insistence his men were issued light blue infantry uniforms instead of the darker blue worn by blacks doing support labor for the army. On May 18, Shaw's regiment received a request from General David Hunter, commander of the Department of the South, for their regiment to proceed to Beaufort, South Carolina. On May 28 the regiment marched from Readville through Boston and down to the harbor. Their procession through Boston passed Shaw's family home and the Boston State House amid crowds lining the streets. 1863 June On June 3 one of the companies sailed to Hilton Head, South Carolina. On June 10 some of the 54th troop were forced to loot and burn the small town of Darien, Georgia, of no military import. Shaw protested the burning and the...
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