54th Regiment

American Civil War: 54th Regiment
How the distinguished battlefield performance of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment paved the way for the formation of other African American units during the American Civil War.
© Civil War Trust (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
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54th Regiment, in full Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Massachusetts infantry unit made up of African Americans that was active during the American Civil War (1861–65). The 54th Regiment became famous for its fighting prowess and for the great courage of its members. Its exploits were depicted in the 1989 film Glory.

The abolitionist governor of Massachusetts, John Andrew, assembled the 54th Regiment in early 1863 after receiving authorization to do so from U.S. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Although all of the regiment’s officers were white—a fact that upset many Northern leaders at the time—Andrew’s outspoken advocacy persuaded many prominent African Americans to support the idea. Among those who actively recruited for the unit were Frederick Douglass, Martin Delany, Henry Highland Garnet, and John Mercer Langston. They and other leaders believed that if the 54th Regiment could succeed in battle, charges of racial inferiority, so frequent at the time, would be undermined decisively. Because of the widespread recruitment efforts, the 54th Regiment, unlike other Civil War units, drew its ranks from across the northern United States and beyond, including some Confederate states, Canada, and the West Indies.

Led by Col. Robert Gould Shaw, a member of a prominent abolitionist family in Boston, the 54th Regiment soon distinguished itself in battle. Its first success came on July 16, 1863, in the Sea Islands off South Carolina, where the unit repelled a Confederate attack on James Island. Just two days later came a more decisive test. In an attack on Fort Wagner, on Morris Island in Charleston, South Carolina, the 54th Regiment fought valiantly against a stronger Confederate force. More than half the regiment was lost in that battle. For his bravery at Fort Wagner, Sgt. William H. Carney became the first African American to earn the Medal of Honor, the country’s highest military award.

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.