The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment was one of the first Union military units made up of black soldiers under white officers. Its recruitment had been a high-profile event, and its commander, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, hailed from a prominent Boston abolitionist family. The regiment’s assignment to lead the assault on Fort Wagner was thus seen as a crucial chance to prove that African Americans could fight for their own freedom.
Forbes, as seen at the Fort Wagner Briefing. ... Cabot begins to be soft on the men, so Robert hires Sergeant Major Mulcahy to train them. He notices that Robert is hard on the men and confronts him about how he has turned into a different person. In the end, he dies alongside the 54th regiment.
Union Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and 272 of his troops are killed in an assault on Fort Wagner, near Charleston, South Carolina. ... Union artillery battered Fort Wagner all day on July 18, but the barrage did little damage to the fort and its garrison.
The performance of the 54th Regiment at Fort Wagner convinced many Northern leaders that African Americans could be good soldiers, which paved the way for further enlistment of African Americans in the war effort. By the end of the Civil War, more than 178,000 African Americans had served in the Union army, playing a crucial part in the Northern victory. The experiment in allowing African Americans in the military had been a resounding success.
Unfortunately, battlefield hardships were not the only difficulties that the 54th Regiment had to endure. The federal government reneged on its initial guarantee that it would pay black soldiers the same as white soldiers. In response, the regiment led other African American units in refusing to accept money from the federal government for nearly one year. Under the threat of mutiny by African American units and faced with increasing pressure from antislavery congressmen and a large letter-writing campaign waged by the soldiers and their supporters, the federal government finally granted equal pay in June 1864. The regiment was mustered out of the army after the war, in August 1865.While the Battle of Fort Wagner was a Confederate victory, this battle showed the fierce determinations of African Americans in the Union army with the brave assault led by the 54th Massachusetts Infantry.
The Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Bronze Relief, 1897, with architectural elements by Charles Follen Mckim. ... This beautiful bas-relief has been vandalized before – once with paint in 2012, and the sword was broken off in both 2015 and 2017
too long question bro.
