| THE MASSACHUSETTS 54TH |
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• What part did black troops play in the Civil War? • How were black soldiers treated in comparison to their white comrades? • Why does the Massachusetts 54th deserve special attention? • Where did the 54th make its greatest impact? • How historically accurate is the movie Glory? |
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At 4:30 am on April 12, 1861, South Carolinian artillery forces commanded by General Pierre G. T. Beauregard opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. After some 35 hours of relentless bombardment, the garrison, heavily damaged and its ammunition exhausted, was forced to surrender. Many years of angry bickering and reluctant compromise between the North and the South had now turned into military hostilities. The Civil War was underway. Although some blacks had fought in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, they were, according to law, barred from military service. Consequently, during the early stages of the Civil War, blacks eager to enlist were turned away. But the dire need for manpower soon convinced the federal government to change its policy. In mid-1862, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton approved certain local enrollments of blacks in Kansas, Louisiana, and South Carolina. A year later, the Emancipation Proclamation specifically authorized unlimited black enlistment. Wholesale recruitment ensued, and by late 1863, nearly 60 black regiments had formed. In all, about 200,000 blacks, comprising some 166 regiments, would eventually join the Union Army. Nearly one-fifth of them perished during the Civil War. Black soldiers were segregated and commanded by white officers. Initially, pay was $7 per month for blacks, which was about half that of their white counterparts. In addition, the black regiments were usually outfitted with the poorest equipment and received the most meager supplies. Predictably, black prisoners were afforded especially cruel regimen by their southern captors—some unfortunates were even summarily shot. (In early 1864, Confederate forces under General Nathan Bedford Forrest conducted a brutal post-surrender execution of over 250 black soldiers at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.) While the shoddy treatment and lousy conditions were somewhat expected, the worst of it, from the perspective of the blacks, was that many northerners were skeptical of their courage and fighting ability. It seems human prejudice and its accompanying ignorance have no bounds! Racism among the Union troops was profound. "I never came out here for to free the black devils," announced one northern soldier. Another objected to fighting beside blacks because whites "...are a far too superior race for that." Many northerners who accepted the idea of black troops did so only because the blacks were often assigned either especially heavy work or tasks considered too menial for whites (after all, the simple black man was used to strenuous routine labor) rather than actual battlefield fighting. When black companies were included in battle tactics, it was not unusual for them to be placed in the most strategically dangerous situations (no sense putting the lives of white soldiers in positions of extreme risk when there were plenty of blacks on hand). A popular song in the North celebrated "Sambo's Right to be Kilt" as the only justification for black enlistments. Hence, for the black, the desire to fight was not so much to save the Union, or even to destroy the institution of slavery, as it was another profound step in his exhausting struggle for freedom—to demonstrate equality with his white captor race. The great black abolitionist Frederick Douglass declared, "Let the black man...get an eagle on his button and a musket on his shoulder, and there is no power on earth which can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship." "When Rebellion is crushed," wrote a black volunteer from Connecticut, "who will be more proud than I to say, 'I was one of the first of the despised race to leave the free North with a rifle on my shoulder, and give the lie to the old story that the black man will not fight.'" Joseph E. Williams, a black man from Pennnsylvania, helped recruit freed slaves in North Carolina. He wrote: "For this cause we will fight, for the cause of freedom. I will draw my sword against my oppressor and the oppressors of my race. I must avenge my debasement. I will ask no quarter, nor will I give any. With me there is but one question, which is life or death. And I will sacrifice everything in order to save the gift of freedom for my race." The most famous of the black volunteer regiments was the 54th Massachusetts Infantry. It was commanded by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, a blond Bostonian only 25 years of age. His parents were wealthy abolitionists. The Massachusetts 54th spearheaded the land-and-sea assault on Charleston during the Coastal Campaign of 1863. Among Shaw's enlisted personnel were two sons of Douglass. The early capture of Charleston was high on the Union priorities list. While Charleston was important from a military standpoint, many northerners felt it represented something far beyond battlefield strategy. With an attack on Charleston the North had the opportunity to exact revenge on the South at the precise spot where the Confederate States had fired the first shots of rebellion against the Union. To the Confederates, on the other hand, Charleston was symbolic of freedom from federal injustices imposed upon the South for decades. Thus, from the very beginning, the South Carolina port was, it seemed, destined for a bloody reckoning. Charleston would not succumb easily. It was certain the city's thoughtfully planned defense would be vigorously orchestrated by the skillful Beauregard. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles observed, "A desperate stand will be made at Charleston, and [the Confederate] defenses are formidable. Delay has given them time and warning, and they have improved them. They know also that there is no city so culpable, or against which there is so intense animosity." Fort Wagner was the immediate objective. A total of 15 regiments were assembled to attack the garrison. The Union troops would advance in three waves. When the offer to lead the strike was extended to the Massachusetts 54th, Shaw eagerly accepted. Was the 54th chosen for its valor or because its black soldiers were deemed expendable? No matter—here was the opportunity for the proud regiment, as yet untested in serious battle, to prove its worth and silence its critics! On July 18, moments before the charge, Shaw was approached by General George Strong to issue final orders. Addressing the entire 54th, and pointing to one of the flag-bearers, Strong shouted, "If this man should fall, who will lift the flag and carry it on?" "I will!" came the quick reply from Shaw, prompting cheers from his men. As Strong rode off, Shaw faced his regiment and said, "I want you to prove yourselves. The eyes of thousands will look upon what you do tonight." He then drew his sword and led the Massachusetts 54th forth on its grisly task. As the courageous Massachusetts 54th advanced, the lay of the land forced the troops to be so tightly wedged together that bullets and shells from Fort Wagner could hardly fail to score a hit. Men fell by the dozens. Quick step became a double-quick and then a full run. Leading the attack, Shaw splashed through the moat and gained the walls of the garrison. At his side was a 23-year-old black private, William H. Carney. Shaw was shot through the heart at the top of the parapet, toppling headlong into the fort. The flag-bearers, as well, went down. Carney, though wounded twice and soaked with blood, retrieved the American flag and managed to haul it from the battleground. For this brave action he would be the first black awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. While the 54th fell back in disarray, reinforcements from the rest of the brigade rushed Fort Wagner. Then a second wave of fresh troops charged. During the fracas within the walls of the fort, many Union soldiers were shot by their confused comrades. Additional reinforcements were held back. Eventually, the troops who had penetrated the garrison had no choice but to surrender. The attack was a massacre. The 54th suffered 44 percent casualties. The total Union dead, wounded, and missing numbered over 1,500. The Confederates lost only 174 men. In the morning, the Fort Wagner soldiers buried hundreds of Federals in mass graves. A Union party approached under a flag of truce and requested the return of Shaw's body. The fort's commander did not oblige. He replied, "We have buried him in the trench with his niggers." When Shaw's father learned of this, he stated, "We can imagine no holier place than that in which he is, among his brave and devoted followers, nor wish for him better company." The assault on Fort Wagner had a bittersweet end. After almost two months, and at a loss of over 2,300 soldiers, the fort was taken. But as the Union troops entered their prize, they found it deserted. Its force of about 400 had evacuated by boat the night before. The Federals would use Fort Wagner to lay seige on their next target, Fort Sumter, whose shelling by the Confederates in 1861 had started the Civil War. The Massachusetts 54th is chronicled in the motion picture Glory, produced in 1989. Its cast includes Matthew Broderick, who portrays Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, and Cary Elwes, playing the part of Major Cabot Forbes, Shaw's confidant and fellow officer. The movie received three Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actor, won by Denzel Washington ("Trip") for his role as a runaway slave, now enlisted in the 54th, who embodies the unyielding spirit of the black regiment. His misdirected energy and common insolence is tempered by an empathetic and inspirational old sergeant, played by Morgan Freeman ("Rawlins"). Also among the raw recruits of the 54th are Andre Braugher ("Searles"), a free black from an established northern family, clearly accustomed to many comforts and benefits enjoyed by privileged society, including a fine education, and Jihmi Kennedy ("Sharts"), a timid ex-slave who learned unquestioned submission to white authority on a South Carolina plantation. Shaw wrote home to his parents regularly, telling his version of life in the Army of the Potomac. The letters (currently held by the Houghton Library at Harvard University) provide the historical basis for much of Glory; several brief excerpts are read by a voice-over throughout the movie. Other sources used by the filmmakers are Lay This Laurel, by Lincoln Kirstein, and One Gallant Rush, by Peter Burchard. While Glory has an R rating, owing to violence and language typical of dramatic presentations about war and racism, it is not overly embellished with either. From the outset, director Edward Zwick resolved to uphold the movie's historical integrity. Glory modifies some of the facts, but in this case, the deviations are relatively minor and do not detract from presenting the true legacy of the Massachusetts 54th. For example, the Massachusetts governor did not offer Shaw command of the new 54th person-to-person at a lavish reception. Rather, the governor conveyed the offer through Shaw's father. Nor did Shaw immediately accept; he initially refused, but later changed his mind. The membership base of the Massachusetts 54th is the subject of another minor historical flaw within Glory. Although about 80 percent of the blacks who served in the Union Army were ex-slaves, the bulk of the 54th's recruits were free blacks residing in the North. The movie, however, would have viewers believe the regiment was composed almost entirely of runaway slaves. Understandably, the use of physical punishment was a major point of contention between ex-slave recruits and white officers during the Civil War. One white officer confessed in a letter to his brother that "I no longer wonder why slave drivers were cruel. I am." During an especially agonizing scene in Glory, Shaw has one of his black recruits whipped for disobeying camp orders. The real Shaw did not submit his soldiers to such treatment. Not only had Congress recently outlawed flogging in the military, but for the compassionate Shaw to have done so is inconceivable. Hence, the scene is apart from fact. One particularly memorable episode in Glory shows the frenzied black soldiers of the Massachusetts 54th (at the urging of the fiery private portrayed by Washington) tearing up their paychecks to protest wages unequal to that of white Union soldiers. In truth, the blacks of the 54th did refuse to accept any pay at all until it was equalized, though it is doubtful their show of displeasure was as raucous as that in the movie. When the Massachusetts legislature appropriated funds to make up the difference, the 54th still declined compensation, holding out for a federal order mandating identical pay. The 54th was not the only company to openly protest unequal wages. Sergeant William Walker of the 3rd South Carolina Volunteers led his fellow soldiers to their commander's tent, where they stacked their weapons and threatened to quit on the spot. Walker was court-martialed and shot for mutiny. The vacillation over equal pay was typical of the federal government's attitude toward the black in virtually all matters. The argument of popular tolerance—just how much equality the northern white public was willing to accept—was the common excuse for delay. Indeed, President Abraham Lincoln agreed in theory with the request of Douglass "that Negroes should receive equal pay and should be promoted when they deserved it," but counseled that they nevertheless "would have to wait until the nation became more accustomed to Negro soldiers." Eventually, Congress did act, but with reservations. The law for equal pay provided back wages to date of enlistment for those blacks who were free at the outset of the war. But for those who were still enslaved when the war began, the measure was retroactive only to January 1, 1864. By the war's end, one soldier in eight was black. In fact, the Union's black troops alone, more than a third of which came from the states of Kentucky, Louisiana, and Texas, outnumbered the entire Confederate Army! Blacks had an even greater impact in the Navy, where they comprised a quarter of the force. Sixteen black soldiers and four black sailors received the Congressional Medal of Honor for their actions during the Civil War. The Civil War ended on April 9, 1865, when General Robert E. Lee, facing vastly superior Union numbers, cancelled his attack plan and instead sent a request to General Ulysses S. Grant for a cease-fire and a conference on terms. At 3:45 that afternoon, leaders from both sides met at Appomattox Court House, resulting in Lee's surrender of his crippled Army of Northern Virginia. The most powerful Confederate force now out of commission, the war, to all intents and purposes, was over. Within two weeks, the Army of Tennessee and remnants of four other Confederate armies, under General Joseph E. Johnston, yielded to General William Tecumseh Sherman in North Carolina. By May 26, all remaining Confederate regiments had laid down their arms. President Andrew Johnson's Proclamation of Amnesty, issued on May 29, officially ended the Civil War. Immediately after the war, efforts began to create a memorial to Colonel Shaw and the Massachusetts 54th in Boston. It wasn't until 1881 that enough funds were raised to commission the project from the distinguished American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. At the insistence of Shaw's family, Saint-Gaudens included some of the regiment's soldiers in the memorial. The finished piece, unveiled in May of 1897, shows Shaw mounted on a horse amidst 23 black troops. Booker T. Washington, President of Tuskegee Institute, was among the speakers at the dedication ceremony. Sergeant Carney, the 54th's heroic flag-bearer in the assault on Fort Wagner, was present as well. Over the years, Saint-Gaudens's work has become one of the most popular of the countless monuments commemorating the Civil War. It can be seen as background while the final credits roll in Glory. The first official black regiment was the 1st South Carolina Volunteers. It was commanded by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who, like Robert Gould Shaw, was from Boston. Few black soldiers became officers—less than a hundred—during the course of the war, due in combination to their lack of military experience, their late enlistment in the war, and racial prejudice. The first black officer, appointed in early 1865, was Major Martin R. Delany. His was not a field command position—Delany was assigned to recruitment. In a speech delivered in late 1865, Delany told his audience, "Do you know that if it was not for the black men this war never would have been brought to a close with success to the Union, and the liberty of your race if it had not been for the Negro? I want you to understand that." A song of the black soldiers: "Old Jeff says he'll hang us if we dare to meet him armed / A very big thing, but we are not alarmed / For God is for the right, and we have no need to fear / The Union must be saved by the colored volunteer." Corporal James Henry Gooding of the Massachusetts 54th stated his unit intended "to live down all prejudice against its color, by a determination to do well in any position it is put." Glory contains a scene where white Union troops cheer the 54th as it marches toward its position to begin the attack on Fort Wagner. Gooding expressed pride that "a regiment of white men gave us three cheers as we were passing them" because "it shows that we did our duty as men should." Indeed, Colonel Shaw and his men gained the respect of even some of the Confederates they attacked. Shortly after the assault, Lieutenant Iredell Jones stated, "The Negroes fought gallantly, and were headed by as brave a colonel as ever lived." Colonel Shaw was well-liked and respected by his regiment. Just before the 54th launched its attack on Fort Wagner, one of Shaw's men shouted, "Colonel, I will stay by you till I die." And that he did—the soldier, like Shaw, was killed in battle. |
