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Once upon a time…

About 600 African American soldiers, all armed and ready for battle, muster on Boston Common.

It is May, a saucy month in New England. The gardens are greening and life seems full of possibility. This particular day is no exception. It is, in fact, absolutely golden: warm, sunny, a day to wrap your arms around.

To be precise, it is the 28th of May, 1863 and despite the pleasant weather, we are at war with ourselves.
Shiloh. Harper’s Ferry.
Antietam has too-recently made its blood offering.
Fredericksburg. Chancellorsville.
Already this is a history of near loss for the Union Army, and a history of wondrous survival for the Confederates.

But here on Boston Common, there is both celebration and boldness in the air as the first Northern “coloured regiment” of the Union Army gets ready to march off to battle. Trained and armed just like their white counterparts, they are also uniformed and paid – just like their white counterparts.

But unlike their white counterparts, these soldiers and their white officers march with a death sentence over their heads. On Christmas Eve, 1862, nearly a month before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ General Orders #111 declare that any and all commissioned Union officers be considered “as robbers and criminals deserving death” upon capture. Further, whether the black soldiers be freed or runaway slaves, it no longer mattered once they crossed Southern lines. At that time, all were considered “slaves [who were to be] “at once delivered over to…the respective States to which they belong to be dealt with according to the laws of said States.”

Most of these men are free, but not all. They have come from Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Missouri…as far away as Bermuda. They all know the risks of serving in this regiment. In spite of these risks, perhaps because of these risks, they stand here now in regimental trim, ready to make their mark on history.

Among the souls here today are Lewis Henry Douglass and Charles Redmond Douglass, sons of the former slave and great abolitionist, Frederick Douglass.

James Caldwell, grandson of Sojourner Truth, is here as well. He has traveled from Battle Creek, Michigan.

So, too, is Stephen Atkins Swails, a young man who will survive to become a Reconstructionist lawyer, town mayor, and member of the 1868 electoral college. He also will be the first man of color to make lieutenant in this unit (Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune 30).

William Harvey Carney is here. He is one of the first to join that cold February (Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune 30). Twenty-three years old, Carney was born into slavery.

Both his parents were slaves but the family, now free, lives in New Bedford, Massachusetts. When he was 15, he “embraced the gospel” and later believed he would become a minister (The Liberator November 6, 1863), but he is here, instead, responding to a different type of calling:

Previous to the formation of colored troops, I had a strong inclination to prepare myself for the ministry; but when the country called for all persons, I could best serve my God serving my country and my oppressed brothers. (The Liberator 1863).

Leading these men are the sons of socially prominent, white abolitionist families: Col. Robert Gould Shaw, of Boston, who was married just a month prior, and Lt. Col. Norwood “Pen” Hallowell and his younger brother, Edward. Pen Hallowell will go on to lead the Massachusetts 55th, a second African American regiment formed after the success of the 54th. Edward Hallowell eventually will command the 54th.

The American author, Henry James, has a younger brother, Wilkie, who also signs on.

They are gathered now, in front of the State House and will march to Boston Harbor, famous for a different party during a different war. From there, they sail south. Their ultimate destination is Fort Wagner, South Carolina.

They arrive on July 18, 1863 having seen some prior skirmishes the month before. The fort is located on Morris Island and guards the southern approach into Charleston harbor. This battle will be the second attempt in a week to win the fort. The first attempt resulted in over 300 Union dead compared to the loss of 12 Confederate soldiers (www.wikipedia.org).

Col. Shaw writes:

July 18th. Morris Island
We are in General Strong’s Brigade, and have left Montgomery, I hope for good. We came here last night, and were out again all night in a very heavy rain. Fort Wagner is being very heavily bombarded. We are not far from it. (Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune 386)

Five thousand Union soldiers attack the fort. The Massachusetts 54th leads the way. Their approach is along the beach. They need to cross over a 30’ defensive embankment. It is here that Col. Shaw, leading his men by foot, raises his sword to storm the enemy walls.

“Forward 54th!” he cries. His men follow. Shaw is one of the first to reach the top of the wall.

The Union dead number into the thousands. Of the 600 soldiers of the 54th, 220 die as a result of the day’s battle. One of those soldiers, shot through the heart, is Col. Shaw. One of the survivors is William Carney.

At battle’s end, the Confederacy strip Col. Shaw’s body, briefly put him on display, then throw him into the bottom of a mass grave with other soldiers of the 54th. The action is intended as an insult, not least because officers’ bodies were, in those days, collected and returned from the battleground to the family for a formal burial. Not so in this case.

The intended insult ends up as a point of honor between Col. Shaw and his men. His family says that this is where their son would want to be, that he would have considered it an honor to be buried with his men.

His widow never remarries.

In the fire of battle, however, Carney sees the flag-bearer drop the company flag. Without giving it any thought, he picks up the flag before it can be captured and fights his way to the Fort Wagner wall. He is said to have kept the flag waving for 20 minutes during that desperate battle. When he finally gives up his position, family legend says that he actually wraps himself in the flag in order to protect it.

The action also makes him a very special moving target: a former slave, a black Union soldier, a company man bearing the company colors. Carney is wounded four times before he gives up the flag in safety. Twice in his body. Once in his arm. The last bullet grazes his head.

Even when a member of the NY 100th offers to carry the flag for him, Carney keeps going, refusing to give up the flag to any but a member of the 54th (“America’s Civil War” Hammond, March, 2007).

“The old flag never touched the ground,” he says when he finally collapses.

In 1900, 37 years after his act of bravery and 38 years after the medal’s inception, William Carney is awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor “to be presented in the name of Congress, to such officers and non-commissioned privates as shall most distinguish themselves by their gallantry in action.”

William Harvey Carney is the first African American recipient.

“I only did my duty,” says Carney upon receiving it.

Follow this you-tube link to see an interesting little video about the Emancipation Proclamation and the Massachusetts 54th.

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