February 20, 2012 • 26 mins
A 1792 law prevented African Americans from taking up arms in the Civil War. As attitudes against blacks serving changed, black regiments were formed. But prejudices remained until the heroism of black soldiers won the attention of the nation.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from house
stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Sarah Dowdy and I'm Delia Truck Recording, and probably
for the first time since our three hundred episode, we
we're going to be talking about a subject that most
(00:22):
of you might know better from the movie version. It's
the four Massachusetts Colored Infantry. And if you've seen the
nine nine film Glory, you know that the story covers
an all African American regiment in the Civil War. In
their white Colonel Robert gould Shaw, who's played by a
barely out of Ferris Bueller Matthew Broderick. And despite required
(00:45):
Hollywood tweaks and changed timelines, I mean, they've got a
self tickets. After all, Glory is considered one of the
best Civil War films, probably because it had Shelby Foote,
the author as its historical advisor, and a really well
respected cast for Derick Morgan Freeman. A young Denzel Washington
actually checked out the review of Glory in the New
(01:06):
York Times Articles Archives and they said he was clearly
on his way to a major screen career. Indeed. Um,
so we're of course going to be talking about some
of the high points featured in the film Glory, the
regiments parade through Boston, their pay refusal, their tragic battle
at Fort Wagner. But we're also going to be talking
(01:27):
about why the fifty four was so remarkable in the
first place, and why it took until eighteen sixty three
for a northern state to raise an all black regiment.
That last fact is especially surprising when you consider African
Americans fought in the Revolutionary War, so why in the
Civil War when their liberty was again at stake, where
(01:47):
blacks not initially allowed to fight well. When the war began,
many free blacks wanted to join, but a seventeen ninety
two law prevented them from doing so. And also Northerners
as a whole weren't in favor of it. They believed
African Americans were unsuitable soldiers, cowardly or unintelligent, and they
thought that they weren't equipped to do anything beyond the
(02:09):
hard labor work that was required for war, so grave digging,
hauleen cooking, things like that. And if you listen to
our episode on the Stone a Rebellion, and if you've
heard of other revolts like Nat Turners. It's also easy
to see that there was a fair amount of fear involved.
It seemed a risk almost to outfit and armed black soldiers.
But opinions did start to change over time, partly because
(02:31):
the war dragged on longer than people had expected it too,
and fewer white men were so gung ho to go
and list anymore. Also, abolitionists started to make promoting black
service a prime wartime goal. Many thought it as the
natural road toward full freedom, that you had to participate
in earning that freedom by fighting, and one of the
(02:53):
most famous abolitionists of the day, the former slave Frederick Douglas,
even fed quote, once the black man gets the upon
his person, the brass letters UF must get on his
shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power
on earth which can deny that he has earned the
right to citizenship in the United States. Finally, though some
(03:13):
Northern generals, not all saw enlisting African American troops as
a way to win the war. To end the war,
General Grant considered enlisting black troops as a definitive way
to beat the Confederacy. I mean, it makes sense to
you have this huge minority of the population with a
very strong investment in the fight, So why not let
(03:35):
them in and let them have a go at it.
So by July eighteen sixty two, laws did start to
change to allow more black participation. Congress first of all,
repealed in seventeen two law barring blacks from service. They
also passed the Confiscation Act, which made all slaves of
rebel masters free as soon as they crossed Union lines,
(03:56):
and they passed the Militia Act, which empowered the President
to say that the black militias. So within a month,
the War Department had authorized Brigadier General Rufus Saxton, who
controlled the Union occupied area of South Carolina, to raise
five black regiments with white officers, and the volunteering was
sluggish at first, but by November the first South Carolina
(04:18):
Volunteer Regiment was mustered under the command of a Massachusetts
abolitionists named Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson. A second regiment was
then formed soon after, commanded by Colonel James Montgomery, and
the first and the second Carolina regiments quickly proved their worth.
They rated Georgia, Florida and even occupied Jacksonville, and similarly
organized groups of soldiers were soon formed in Kansas and
(04:41):
occupied areas of Louisiana, made up of freedmen and former slaves.
So by fall eighteen sixty two there were a few
regiments of black soldiers in action, but so far none
had been created by northern states. Still seemed like a
black army was a ways off. One obstacle, of course,
(05:01):
was the Border States. President Lincoln had then quote to
arm the Negroes would turn fifty thousand bayonets from the
loyal border states against us that were for us. But
the abolition hast really continued to press their cause, as
did the realities of a long war. You know, you've
got to have enough soldiers to fight the thing. And finally,
on January one, eighteen sixty three, Lincoln signed the Emancipation
(05:25):
Proclamation into law. And the proclamation meant that Lincoln could
not only remove resources from their conquered owners and laboring
slaves from their conquered owners, he could use those freedmen
to further his own wartime aims by turning them into soldiers.
So African Americans could now enlist in the army and navy.
And the way Lincoln put it to Grant really kind
(05:47):
of sums the whole thing up. He said, it works
doubly weakening the enemy and strengthening us. So Massachusetts seems
like a natural place to form an all black state regiments,
since it had been the heart of the abolition movement
for years. Massachusetts Governor John Andrew, who was an abolitionist himself,
believed ardently that African Americans must play a part in
(06:09):
ending Southern slavery. It really saw it as a moral issue,
like if this happens without their participation, how can we
all go on with that as a as the reality.
That's why he petitions Secretary of War and When Stanton
for permission to form a state regiment, and was approved
by the end of January, so it was officially on
(06:30):
at that point. His first order of business was, of course,
attracting soldiers. Massachusetts did not have a large African American
population at this time, and according to William C. Cassatists
in American history, only one hundred men volunteered in those
first six weeks, So that must have been a major
blow to Andrew, who is so excited about the prospect
(06:51):
of forming a regiment in his state. So he decided
to expand his net go beyond Massachusetts, and with the
help of other abolish and as he raised five thousand
dollars to set up these recruiting posts across the Northern States,
trying to draw the cream of the crop in basically
eventually attracting one thousand recruits. He soon had enough recruits
(07:13):
to form not only a Massachusetts fifty four, but a
Massachusetts fifty five too. And they was a pretty diverse
bunch as you as you'd figure from these recruiting posts
all over the North. The fifty four featured men from
twenty four different states, the District of Columbia, the West Indies,
(07:34):
and Africa. Twenty percent of them had been slaves, and
some were pretty high profile guys too too. Of Frederick
Douglas's sons, for instance, enlisted. It was, like I said,
kind of the best of the beasts were attracted to
this regiment. Governor Andrew also promised potential black recruits that
this wasn't a setup and white officers wouldn't be against
(07:55):
their own men. They'd be committed abolitionists with real war experience.
I think the fear was that they would they would
pair the black troops with somebody who either didn't care
about them, you know it was race, or somebody who
just didn't know what he was doing, and that would
certainly speak to how much you cared about your regiment
if you put them with a poorly trained officer. Well.
(08:16):
Governor Andrew's pick ended up being Captain Robert Gouldshaw, the
twenty five year old son of abolitionist Francis and Sarah Shaw.
And Shaw's father was an extremely wealthy former merchant from
Boston who had retired early to West Roxbury for an
academic life translating literature. And Shaw grew up attending top
schools around New York in Europe and listening as a
(08:37):
private when the war started. And fun loving and hard
to discipline as he was, Shaw really thrived in the army,
where he was eventually commissioned as a second lieutenant and
finally a captain with the second Regiment of the Massachusetts Infantry.
He saw action and was wounded twice, so he had
abolitionist cred on one hand, he also had war experience
(08:58):
on the other hand. And together, when you put this
two together, he seemed like a perfect candidate too. Yeah,
just the kind of guy that Governor Andrew was looking for.
But when Shaw was offered, the command delivered personally from
the governor to Shaw's father, So he received this this
offer from his own father. He didn't jump at the chance,
and he had a few reasons for doing that. For
(09:21):
one thing, he liked his current gig. He liked being
a captain with the Massachusetts Second. Second, he wasn't thrilled
at the idea of what would undoubtedly be a very
high profile, controversial, and likely unpopular job. You know, a
lot of eyes would be on him. And then, most surprisingly,
he wasn't really that much of an abolitionist. That had
(09:42):
been a major point in his selection. But his personal
beliefs weren't as strong as those of his parents, and
surely his friends must have known this. But to the
wider world, his parents reputation basically made his own. They
had joined the American Anti Slavery Society a year after
he was born, and he had grown up playing with
(10:03):
William Lloyd Garrison's kids. But Shaw himself, while anti slavery,
he didn't see that as his prime motivation for fighting.
He was more of a patriot. He felt upset that
the North was being flighted. You know it wasn't It
wasn't about slavery for him, According to a Russell Duncan
book on Shaw, In one letter, Shaw actually wrote to
(10:25):
his mother, quote, I don't talk and think slavery all
the time. And it's likely that it was Shaw's mother
who finally urged him to accept the offer that his
letter to his future wife, Annie Haggerty suggests that he
also had glory on his mind as a motivator. He said, quote,
you know how many eminent men consider a Negro army
of the greatest importance to our country at this time.
(10:47):
If it turns out to be so, how fully repaid
the pioneers and the movement will be for what they
may have to go through. I feel convinced I shall
never regret having taken this step, as far as I
myself am concerned. For while I was undecided, I felt
ashamed of myself, as if I were cowardly. So whatever
his reasons, Shaw did ultimately accept the commission and he
(11:08):
was promoted to colonel, and from there he oversaw the
training of his men at a camp near Boston. But
one important thing to remember here. All of the officers
in the unit, not just Shaw, were white and many
of them started working with pretty stereotypical views of their soldiers,
and Shaw was certainly included in that he would use
(11:29):
racial names. When writing home to his parents, he'd express
his surprise at how intelligent his men were, things that
seem a little icky now when you read them today,
But working together did eventually foster a sense of unity
between the soldiers and the officers, especially since both of them,
both the men and the officers were under intense scrutiny
(11:51):
from white soldiers. For instance, when the men who had
been promised fair pay at recruitment were only offered ten
dollars per month, which was three dollars less than white
soldiers were paid, Shaw wrote to the governor vowing that
the whole regiment, including him, would refuse payment until it
was fair and equal. And we're going to talk about
(12:13):
that pay question a little bit more later. It's kind
of overshadowed by later events that go through, but it's
one of their most important contributions to the war, and
the bravery of both the men and the officers was
also tested long before they even left the training grounds.
Shortly after Muster, the Confederate Congress passed an act stating
(12:34):
that any black soldier or white officer commanding black soldiers
would be summarily executed if caught behind rebel lines. So
that's something that's going to certainly strengthen the ties between
the officers and the men themselves. So the development of
the four though, as we said, was under intense scrutiny,
but it was also kind of a spectator sport. Almost
(12:56):
about three thousand people ended up visiting them to watch
the training. To Frederick Douglas dot By, not too surprising
if his sons were were involved, but all sorts of
people came back to watch their progress. People were interested
in it, invested in it. But by May eighteen sixty three,
it was time for the men to to ship out
to get going, and on the eighteenth Governor Andrew himself
(13:19):
delivered the regimental flags to Shaw and they got their
first assignment, which was going to be South Carolina. So
unlike those earlier earlier troops we mentioned that we're in
Kansas or in Louisiana, they were going to really be
in the thick up things. Their procession to the Boston
Harbor included a march through downtown and review in front
of the governor before they boardered a ship bound for
(13:41):
Port Royal Island, South Carolina, reporting to the Department of
the South for duty. So what was going on in
South Carolina at this time? There were attacks on Charleston's fortifications,
mostly but not for Shawsna, and they were met with
the bitter disappointment of manual labor. What they what this
was supposed to not be about. They showed up and
they had to do some ditch digging. So it seems
(14:02):
like they were back to square one. You know, I
go through all this training, all this pageantry, and just
go back to digging ditches. So the fifty four didn't
get to see any action until June eighth, when they
joined the troops of Colonel James Montgomery and his All
African American Second South Carolina Regiment. Even this, though their
(14:22):
first taste of soldiering was pretty much a disappointment. Shawn
and his men, under the command of Colonel Montgomery, were
ordered to plunder and burn this tiny town in Georgia
called Darian. It's a bit north of Brunswick and Seawan
was deeply disturbed with the order to burn down this defenseless,
pretty unimportant town, and afterward wrote to his superiors about
(14:46):
the incident, knowing that writing about it, talking about it
like this could mean disciplinary action for speaking up. Ultimately, though,
the officer who commanded Montgomery to sack the town was
not too long after relieved of his command by Lincoln,
so maybe it was worth it for for Shaw to
speak up. Finally, though, July sixty four saw the type
(15:08):
of action they had been hoping for all along, Not
ditch digging, not burning down people's homes or businesses, but
actual soldiering. Yeah, they joined White troops on James Island
near Charleston, carrying themselves well, and they ensured the safe
retreat of the tenth Connecticut Infantry after surprise Confederate attack.
One Connecticut soldier even wrote home to his mother that
(15:31):
the fifty four had quote font like heroes. So Shaw's
brigade commander, General George C. Strong had heard about how
well the men had done on James Island and asked
Shaw if he lead an attack on Fort Wagner on
Morris Island, one of the strategic defenses of Charleston's harbor.
So he was all for this. I mean, this was
a great opportunity for them. Shaw had been angling for
(15:52):
this assignment, and he and his men, as well as Strong,
saw it as a great honor. Yeah, it was an
honor to to leave the attack like this, but not
everybody saw it that way. The division commander, Major General
Truman Seymour only agreed to Strong's request because he saw
the four as disposable. So for him it was it
was not a privilege to give these men the the
(16:15):
honor of leading the attack against the fort. They were
just cannon fodder and he would just as soon dispose
of them first. The geography of Fort Wagner made the
assault especially tricky, and we're gonna have to explain it
a little bit for the attack itself to make sense.
So from a far the earthen work fort really looked
kind of like sand hills. But inside there were one thousand,
(16:37):
three hundred men from the North Carolina fifty one and
thirty feet and some South Carolina artillery men. So it's
very well defended. And since it was in the middle
of a sandy peninsula, the fort was only open to
direct assault on one side, which happened to be this
tiny little sliver of sand that was between the surf
(16:57):
and the marsh. I mean, if you've ever been to
any of the sea islands, you can kind of imagine
the terrain in the less developed areas. So this meant
that the charge would have to be led in waves
because they only have that tiny flivver of land to
work on, and uh they could only fit a few
men shouldered shoulder on the shore to run ahead. So
(17:18):
all through the day on the Union artillery shelled Fort Wagner,
you know, hoping to weaken the defenses a little bit.
By early evening, Shaw and six hundred of his men
had grouped themselves into two wings made of five companies,
and they were using the surface their guide to the fort.
But before the charge, Shaw told them the eyes of
(17:40):
thousands will look on what you do tonight. He handed
over his personal effects to a civilian he had made
friends with um, knowing full well that he was probably
not going to come back from this charge, but using
his words for motivation, they built to a full sprint
across the sand and made it all the way to
the fort under heavy fire. Sergeant Major Lewis Douglas wrote
(18:01):
that quote, not a man flinched, though it was a
trying time. A shell would explode in clear space of
twenty ft our men would close up again. Shaw led
the charge until he was shot dead at the parapet.
The flag bear staked the flag in the parapet, but
the men only had the fort for a short time
before being forced to retreat, and some were shot by
(18:22):
advancing friendly fire when they did so. Twenty three year
old Sergeant William Carney, by this point, shot in the head, chest,
right arm and leg, grabbed the flag on his way out,
delivering it back to the Union lines. And for this
he became the first of twenty one black men during
the war to win the Medal of Honor. Other men,
of course, couldn't make that retreat and became prisoners. You know,
(18:44):
maybe they were too wounded to be able to get out.
Sergeant Robert J. Simmonds, for instance, was shot in the arm,
taken prisoner, and died later in a Charleston hospital. And
if you've listened to our earlier episode on the New
York Draft Riot, this will really resonate with you. But
when storming the fort, he hadn't known that only three
days earlier, New York draft riders had attacked his mother
(19:07):
and sister there and beat his seven year old nephew
to death, so one of the probably greatest tragedies of
the fifty four. Later waves of soldiers couldn't hold the
fort either, though you know, it wasn't just the fifty
four trying to trying to take it Overall, one thousand,
five fifteen Union men were killed, wounded, or went missing,
with two hundred and fifty six of them from the
(19:28):
fifty four, which was the highest regimental casualty number among
the participating regiment. Militarily, the mission was considered a failure.
Area scouting had been subpar, that was one reason why
the fort hadn't been adequately weakened, and the men leading
the charge of the fifty four had never practiced storming
of fort, So there were a lot of things working
(19:49):
against like obvious flaw too. I mean that they were
able to even make it now seemed surprising when you
know that they haven't been able to practice that. But
the discipline and the braver oft was duly noted. A
month after the disaster, Grant wrote to Lincoln empathizing how
much he now supported the use of black troops, and,
(20:10):
according to a Michael J. Barhola article in Civil War Times,
by December of that same year, sixty Black regiments had
been formed in the Union Army, and they weren't regiments
of grave diggers or cooks or laborers, but regiments of soldiers,
and by the war's end, about hundred and eighty thousand
black men had fought. Ken Burns documentary on the Civil
(20:32):
War includes an even more startling figure. Though Blacks made
up less than one percent of the Northern population at
the start of the war, by the end of the
war they made up ten percent of the army. So
what ultimately happened to the fifty four after that fateful battle, Well,
this battle pretty much tore the regiment apart. It wouldn't
fight in another major engagement again, and it took until
(20:55):
March eighteen sixty five for Congress to finally order that
the men, who had now unpaid for eighteen months, to
be compensated retroactively for their service. Shaw was buried with
his men in a pitch at the side of Fort
Wagner as a sign of disrespect, But when his father
learned where he was learned how he was buried, he
(21:15):
said he was pleased that his son had been buried
with his men on the field where he fell. He
even prevented later attempts to relocate Shaw's body, and so
with his family definitely assuring his legacy. With acts like that,
it's no surprise Shaw became kind of a martyred figure
after the fact. And if you take a closer look
(21:35):
at his letters, which contain, as historian Joan Wap puts it,
racist and condescending language, you know it may have affected
that reputation a little bit, but certainly not during the
lifetime of his men. I think that's an important thing
to consider. He wasn't um, he wasn't reduced in their eyes.
It seems only two weeks after the attack on Fort Wagner,
(21:57):
one of his sergeants had written, quote, I still feel
more eager for the struggle than I ever yet have,
for I now wish to have revenge for our gallant
colonel and the spilt blood of our captain. We expect
to plant the stars and strikes on the city of Charleston.
Veterans of the fifty four quickly began raising money for
their colonel's memorial, hoping to build something on Morris Island.
(22:19):
They instead wound up sponsoring a school for emancipated children
in South Carolina. Which was named for Shaw, while Boston
abolitionists raised money for a monument in their city. By
eighteen eighty four, the commission was given to Agusta sat Goden's,
who was the biggest American sculptor of that day, and
he finished his work in eighteen ninety seven. But while
some have criticized Saint Goden's for elevating Shaw above his
(22:41):
men on horseback and for modeling the black soldiers from
live subjects instead of old photos, it's generally considered a
brilliant memorial. Alison Luke's, who's the curator of sculpture at
the National Gallery of Art, calls it quote a knockout.
The name Thank Goden's might ring a bell for some
of you guys to we mentioned him or other. Uh.
David McCullum mentioned him a bit and our interview with
(23:04):
him last year. Another random side note to Shaw isn't
the only family member with a memorial. His sister Josephine
Shaw Lowell, who was a social reformer, was the first
woman to earn a public memorial in New York City.
So there you go. Um. I thought a lot about
this story, and in a way it is heroic and
(23:26):
I can definitely see the outcome is positive that African
Americans are able to fight when they want to. But
the story really kind of bothered me in a way too.
It took such an epic failure to catch people's attention
and change minds, and that that disturbed me that it
took so much, and the little the other things, the
(23:48):
fact that they didn't get paid. I mean, there's a
lot that doesn't quite sit right I think about all
the details of the story. And another thing to consider too.
Black soldiers had already fought admirably at Port Hudson Milliicans
spend by this point, but neither event really received much coverage.
So it's almost like it took something this horrible, this
(24:09):
disastrous to catch people's attention, and and yeah, that does
bother me. And I think if you want to learn
a little bit more about the plight or life, depending
on how you look at it of a black soldier,
there's some great resources that the National Park Service has online,
really fantastic accounts of the history of African Americans in
(24:30):
the military in the Civil War. Another resource I might
recommend is the Massachusetts Historical Society. They have portraits of
many of the men of the fifty four. And I
think one criticism of this story sometimes is that you
have Shaw, he's a well defined figure and very much
(24:50):
tied up with the regiment, but it's harder to get
as detailed personal stories from many of the men of
the regiment. It is, after all, a a company of men,
you know, it's a it's a large group of people.
But the Massachusetts Historical Society does have portraits, you know,
portraits of the little drummer boys and stuff who look
(25:11):
like they're in their very early teens at the oldest,
and I think for me that helped put a little
personality behind the men of the regiment and not just Shaw. Yeah,
that's good to know. That's one thing I thought of
two while going through this is that although we did
have a couple of quotes in here from soldiers, but
it would have been nice to know a little bit
more about the individuals who fought. And I think that's
(25:33):
a good place to to start, and to learn a
lot more about African Americans serving in the Civil War. So, um,
if you guys have any other suggestions of of other
resources relating to the Massachusetts fifty fourth or any comments
on the movie, glory what you thought of it? UM
Any historical inaccuracies. I know you guys love to talk
(25:57):
about those. UM. You can email us where at his
podcast at Discovery dot com or also on Twitter at
mist in History and we are in Facebook. And while
you're looking for inaccuracies and glory, you can also check
out some other historical inaccuracies and movies and a top
ten article that we have on our website called ten
(26:17):
historically inaccurate Movies appropriately Enough and you can look that
up by visiting our homepage at www dot how stuff
works dot com. Be sure to check out our new
video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how stup Work
staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities
(26:38):
of tomorrow. The house Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived.
Download it today on iTunes.
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from house
stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Sarah Dowdy and I'm Delia Truck Recording, and probably
for the first time since our three hundred episode, we
we're going to be talking about a subject that most
(00:22):
of you might know better from the movie version. It's
the four Massachusetts Colored Infantry. And if you've seen the
nine nine film Glory, you know that the story covers
an all African American regiment in the Civil War. In
their white Colonel Robert gould Shaw, who's played by a
barely out of Ferris Bueller Matthew Broderick. And despite required
(00:45):
Hollywood tweaks and changed timelines, I mean, they've got a
self tickets. After all, Glory is considered one of the
best Civil War films, probably because it had Shelby Foote,
the author as its historical advisor, and a really well
respected cast for Derick Morgan Freeman. A young Denzel Washington
actually checked out the review of Glory in the New
(01:06):
York Times Articles Archives and they said he was clearly
on his way to a major screen career. Indeed. Um,
so we're of course going to be talking about some
of the high points featured in the film Glory, the
regiments parade through Boston, their pay refusal, their tragic battle
at Fort Wagner. But we're also going to be talking
(01:27):
about why the fifty four was so remarkable in the
first place, and why it took until eighteen sixty three
for a northern state to raise an all black regiment.
That last fact is especially surprising when you consider African
Americans fought in the Revolutionary War, so why in the
Civil War when their liberty was again at stake, where
(01:47):
blacks not initially allowed to fight well. When the war began,
many free blacks wanted to join, but a seventeen ninety
two law prevented them from doing so. And also Northerners
as a whole weren't in favor of it. They believed
African Americans were unsuitable soldiers, cowardly or unintelligent, and they
thought that they weren't equipped to do anything beyond the
(02:09):
hard labor work that was required for war, so grave digging,
hauleen cooking, things like that. And if you listen to
our episode on the Stone a Rebellion, and if you've
heard of other revolts like Nat Turners. It's also easy
to see that there was a fair amount of fear involved.
It seemed a risk almost to outfit and armed black soldiers.
But opinions did start to change over time, partly because
(02:31):
the war dragged on longer than people had expected it too,
and fewer white men were so gung ho to go
and list anymore. Also, abolitionists started to make promoting black
service a prime wartime goal. Many thought it as the
natural road toward full freedom, that you had to participate
in earning that freedom by fighting, and one of the
(02:53):
most famous abolitionists of the day, the former slave Frederick Douglas,
even fed quote, once the black man gets the upon
his person, the brass letters UF must get on his
shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power
on earth which can deny that he has earned the
right to citizenship in the United States. Finally, though some
(03:13):
Northern generals, not all saw enlisting African American troops as
a way to win the war. To end the war,
General Grant considered enlisting black troops as a definitive way
to beat the Confederacy. I mean, it makes sense to
you have this huge minority of the population with a
very strong investment in the fight, So why not let
(03:35):
them in and let them have a go at it.
So by July eighteen sixty two, laws did start to
change to allow more black participation. Congress first of all,
repealed in seventeen two law barring blacks from service. They
also passed the Confiscation Act, which made all slaves of
rebel masters free as soon as they crossed Union lines,
(03:56):
and they passed the Militia Act, which empowered the President
to say that the black militias. So within a month,
the War Department had authorized Brigadier General Rufus Saxton, who
controlled the Union occupied area of South Carolina, to raise
five black regiments with white officers, and the volunteering was
sluggish at first, but by November the first South Carolina
(04:18):
Volunteer Regiment was mustered under the command of a Massachusetts
abolitionists named Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson. A second regiment was
then formed soon after, commanded by Colonel James Montgomery, and
the first and the second Carolina regiments quickly proved their worth.
They rated Georgia, Florida and even occupied Jacksonville, and similarly
organized groups of soldiers were soon formed in Kansas and
(04:41):
occupied areas of Louisiana, made up of freedmen and former slaves.
So by fall eighteen sixty two there were a few
regiments of black soldiers in action, but so far none
had been created by northern states. Still seemed like a
black army was a ways off. One obstacle, of course,
(05:01):
was the Border States. President Lincoln had then quote to
arm the Negroes would turn fifty thousand bayonets from the
loyal border states against us that were for us. But
the abolition hast really continued to press their cause, as
did the realities of a long war. You know, you've
got to have enough soldiers to fight the thing. And finally,
on January one, eighteen sixty three, Lincoln signed the Emancipation
(05:25):
Proclamation into law. And the proclamation meant that Lincoln could
not only remove resources from their conquered owners and laboring
slaves from their conquered owners, he could use those freedmen
to further his own wartime aims by turning them into soldiers.
So African Americans could now enlist in the army and navy.
And the way Lincoln put it to Grant really kind
(05:47):
of sums the whole thing up. He said, it works
doubly weakening the enemy and strengthening us. So Massachusetts seems
like a natural place to form an all black state regiments,
since it had been the heart of the abolition movement
for years. Massachusetts Governor John Andrew, who was an abolitionist himself,
believed ardently that African Americans must play a part in
(06:09):
ending Southern slavery. It really saw it as a moral issue,
like if this happens without their participation, how can we
all go on with that as a as the reality.
That's why he petitions Secretary of War and When Stanton
for permission to form a state regiment, and was approved
by the end of January, so it was officially on
(06:30):
at that point. His first order of business was, of course,
attracting soldiers. Massachusetts did not have a large African American
population at this time, and according to William C. Cassatists
in American history, only one hundred men volunteered in those
first six weeks, So that must have been a major
blow to Andrew, who is so excited about the prospect
(06:51):
of forming a regiment in his state. So he decided
to expand his net go beyond Massachusetts, and with the
help of other abolish and as he raised five thousand
dollars to set up these recruiting posts across the Northern States,
trying to draw the cream of the crop in basically
eventually attracting one thousand recruits. He soon had enough recruits
(07:13):
to form not only a Massachusetts fifty four, but a
Massachusetts fifty five too. And they was a pretty diverse
bunch as you as you'd figure from these recruiting posts
all over the North. The fifty four featured men from
twenty four different states, the District of Columbia, the West Indies,
(07:34):
and Africa. Twenty percent of them had been slaves, and
some were pretty high profile guys too too. Of Frederick
Douglas's sons, for instance, enlisted. It was, like I said,
kind of the best of the beasts were attracted to
this regiment. Governor Andrew also promised potential black recruits that
this wasn't a setup and white officers wouldn't be against
(07:55):
their own men. They'd be committed abolitionists with real war experience.
I think the fear was that they would they would
pair the black troops with somebody who either didn't care
about them, you know it was race, or somebody who
just didn't know what he was doing, and that would
certainly speak to how much you cared about your regiment
if you put them with a poorly trained officer. Well.
(08:16):
Governor Andrew's pick ended up being Captain Robert Gouldshaw, the
twenty five year old son of abolitionist Francis and Sarah Shaw.
And Shaw's father was an extremely wealthy former merchant from
Boston who had retired early to West Roxbury for an
academic life translating literature. And Shaw grew up attending top
schools around New York in Europe and listening as a
(08:37):
private when the war started. And fun loving and hard
to discipline as he was, Shaw really thrived in the army,
where he was eventually commissioned as a second lieutenant and
finally a captain with the second Regiment of the Massachusetts Infantry.
He saw action and was wounded twice, so he had
abolitionist cred on one hand, he also had war experience
(08:58):
on the other hand. And together, when you put this
two together, he seemed like a perfect candidate too. Yeah,
just the kind of guy that Governor Andrew was looking for.
But when Shaw was offered, the command delivered personally from
the governor to Shaw's father, So he received this this
offer from his own father. He didn't jump at the chance,
and he had a few reasons for doing that. For
(09:21):
one thing, he liked his current gig. He liked being
a captain with the Massachusetts Second. Second, he wasn't thrilled
at the idea of what would undoubtedly be a very
high profile, controversial, and likely unpopular job. You know, a
lot of eyes would be on him. And then, most surprisingly,
he wasn't really that much of an abolitionist. That had
(09:42):
been a major point in his selection. But his personal
beliefs weren't as strong as those of his parents, and
surely his friends must have known this. But to the
wider world, his parents reputation basically made his own. They
had joined the American Anti Slavery Society a year after
he was born, and he had grown up playing with
(10:03):
William Lloyd Garrison's kids. But Shaw himself, while anti slavery,
he didn't see that as his prime motivation for fighting.
He was more of a patriot. He felt upset that
the North was being flighted. You know it wasn't It
wasn't about slavery for him, According to a Russell Duncan
book on Shaw, In one letter, Shaw actually wrote to
(10:25):
his mother, quote, I don't talk and think slavery all
the time. And it's likely that it was Shaw's mother
who finally urged him to accept the offer that his
letter to his future wife, Annie Haggerty suggests that he
also had glory on his mind as a motivator. He said, quote,
you know how many eminent men consider a Negro army
of the greatest importance to our country at this time.
(10:47):
If it turns out to be so, how fully repaid
the pioneers and the movement will be for what they
may have to go through. I feel convinced I shall
never regret having taken this step, as far as I
myself am concerned. For while I was undecided, I felt
ashamed of myself, as if I were cowardly. So whatever
his reasons, Shaw did ultimately accept the commission and he
(11:08):
was promoted to colonel, and from there he oversaw the
training of his men at a camp near Boston. But
one important thing to remember here. All of the officers
in the unit, not just Shaw, were white and many
of them started working with pretty stereotypical views of their soldiers,
and Shaw was certainly included in that he would use
(11:29):
racial names. When writing home to his parents, he'd express
his surprise at how intelligent his men were, things that
seem a little icky now when you read them today,
But working together did eventually foster a sense of unity
between the soldiers and the officers, especially since both of them,
both the men and the officers were under intense scrutiny
(11:51):
from white soldiers. For instance, when the men who had
been promised fair pay at recruitment were only offered ten
dollars per month, which was three dollars less than white
soldiers were paid, Shaw wrote to the governor vowing that
the whole regiment, including him, would refuse payment until it
was fair and equal. And we're going to talk about
(12:13):
that pay question a little bit more later. It's kind
of overshadowed by later events that go through, but it's
one of their most important contributions to the war, and
the bravery of both the men and the officers was
also tested long before they even left the training grounds.
Shortly after Muster, the Confederate Congress passed an act stating
(12:34):
that any black soldier or white officer commanding black soldiers
would be summarily executed if caught behind rebel lines. So
that's something that's going to certainly strengthen the ties between
the officers and the men themselves. So the development of
the four though, as we said, was under intense scrutiny,
but it was also kind of a spectator sport. Almost
(12:56):
about three thousand people ended up visiting them to watch
the training. To Frederick Douglas dot By, not too surprising
if his sons were were involved, but all sorts of
people came back to watch their progress. People were interested
in it, invested in it. But by May eighteen sixty three,
it was time for the men to to ship out
to get going, and on the eighteenth Governor Andrew himself
(13:19):
delivered the regimental flags to Shaw and they got their
first assignment, which was going to be South Carolina. So
unlike those earlier earlier troops we mentioned that we're in
Kansas or in Louisiana, they were going to really be
in the thick up things. Their procession to the Boston
Harbor included a march through downtown and review in front
of the governor before they boardered a ship bound for
(13:41):
Port Royal Island, South Carolina, reporting to the Department of
the South for duty. So what was going on in
South Carolina at this time? There were attacks on Charleston's fortifications,
mostly but not for Shawsna, and they were met with
the bitter disappointment of manual labor. What they what this
was supposed to not be about. They showed up and
they had to do some ditch digging. So it seems
(14:02):
like they were back to square one. You know, I
go through all this training, all this pageantry, and just
go back to digging ditches. So the fifty four didn't
get to see any action until June eighth, when they
joined the troops of Colonel James Montgomery and his All
African American Second South Carolina Regiment. Even this, though their
(14:22):
first taste of soldiering was pretty much a disappointment. Shawn
and his men, under the command of Colonel Montgomery, were
ordered to plunder and burn this tiny town in Georgia
called Darian. It's a bit north of Brunswick and Seawan
was deeply disturbed with the order to burn down this defenseless,
pretty unimportant town, and afterward wrote to his superiors about
(14:46):
the incident, knowing that writing about it, talking about it
like this could mean disciplinary action for speaking up. Ultimately, though,
the officer who commanded Montgomery to sack the town was
not too long after relieved of his command by Lincoln,
so maybe it was worth it for for Shaw to
speak up. Finally, though, July sixty four saw the type
(15:08):
of action they had been hoping for all along, Not
ditch digging, not burning down people's homes or businesses, but
actual soldiering. Yeah, they joined White troops on James Island
near Charleston, carrying themselves well, and they ensured the safe
retreat of the tenth Connecticut Infantry after surprise Confederate attack.
One Connecticut soldier even wrote home to his mother that
(15:31):
the fifty four had quote font like heroes. So Shaw's
brigade commander, General George C. Strong had heard about how
well the men had done on James Island and asked
Shaw if he lead an attack on Fort Wagner on
Morris Island, one of the strategic defenses of Charleston's harbor.
So he was all for this. I mean, this was
a great opportunity for them. Shaw had been angling for
(15:52):
this assignment, and he and his men, as well as Strong,
saw it as a great honor. Yeah, it was an
honor to to leave the attack like this, but not
everybody saw it that way. The division commander, Major General
Truman Seymour only agreed to Strong's request because he saw
the four as disposable. So for him it was it
was not a privilege to give these men the the
(16:15):
honor of leading the attack against the fort. They were
just cannon fodder and he would just as soon dispose
of them first. The geography of Fort Wagner made the
assault especially tricky, and we're gonna have to explain it
a little bit for the attack itself to make sense.
So from a far the earthen work fort really looked
kind of like sand hills. But inside there were one thousand,
(16:37):
three hundred men from the North Carolina fifty one and
thirty feet and some South Carolina artillery men. So it's
very well defended. And since it was in the middle
of a sandy peninsula, the fort was only open to
direct assault on one side, which happened to be this
tiny little sliver of sand that was between the surf
(16:57):
and the marsh. I mean, if you've ever been to
any of the sea islands, you can kind of imagine
the terrain in the less developed areas. So this meant
that the charge would have to be led in waves
because they only have that tiny flivver of land to
work on, and uh they could only fit a few
men shouldered shoulder on the shore to run ahead. So
(17:18):
all through the day on the Union artillery shelled Fort Wagner,
you know, hoping to weaken the defenses a little bit.
By early evening, Shaw and six hundred of his men
had grouped themselves into two wings made of five companies,
and they were using the surface their guide to the fort.
But before the charge, Shaw told them the eyes of
(17:40):
thousands will look on what you do tonight. He handed
over his personal effects to a civilian he had made
friends with um, knowing full well that he was probably
not going to come back from this charge, but using
his words for motivation, they built to a full sprint
across the sand and made it all the way to
the fort under heavy fire. Sergeant Major Lewis Douglas wrote
(18:01):
that quote, not a man flinched, though it was a
trying time. A shell would explode in clear space of
twenty ft our men would close up again. Shaw led
the charge until he was shot dead at the parapet.
The flag bear staked the flag in the parapet, but
the men only had the fort for a short time
before being forced to retreat, and some were shot by
(18:22):
advancing friendly fire when they did so. Twenty three year
old Sergeant William Carney, by this point, shot in the head, chest,
right arm and leg, grabbed the flag on his way out,
delivering it back to the Union lines. And for this
he became the first of twenty one black men during
the war to win the Medal of Honor. Other men,
of course, couldn't make that retreat and became prisoners. You know,
(18:44):
maybe they were too wounded to be able to get out.
Sergeant Robert J. Simmonds, for instance, was shot in the arm,
taken prisoner, and died later in a Charleston hospital. And
if you've listened to our earlier episode on the New
York Draft Riot, this will really resonate with you. But
when storming the fort, he hadn't known that only three
days earlier, New York draft riders had attacked his mother
(19:07):
and sister there and beat his seven year old nephew
to death, so one of the probably greatest tragedies of
the fifty four. Later waves of soldiers couldn't hold the
fort either, though you know, it wasn't just the fifty
four trying to trying to take it Overall, one thousand,
five fifteen Union men were killed, wounded, or went missing,
with two hundred and fifty six of them from the
(19:28):
fifty four, which was the highest regimental casualty number among
the participating regiment. Militarily, the mission was considered a failure.
Area scouting had been subpar, that was one reason why
the fort hadn't been adequately weakened, and the men leading
the charge of the fifty four had never practiced storming
of fort, So there were a lot of things working
(19:49):
against like obvious flaw too. I mean that they were
able to even make it now seemed surprising when you
know that they haven't been able to practice that. But
the discipline and the braver oft was duly noted. A
month after the disaster, Grant wrote to Lincoln empathizing how
much he now supported the use of black troops, and,
(20:10):
according to a Michael J. Barhola article in Civil War Times,
by December of that same year, sixty Black regiments had
been formed in the Union Army, and they weren't regiments
of grave diggers or cooks or laborers, but regiments of soldiers,
and by the war's end, about hundred and eighty thousand
black men had fought. Ken Burns documentary on the Civil
(20:32):
War includes an even more startling figure. Though Blacks made
up less than one percent of the Northern population at
the start of the war, by the end of the
war they made up ten percent of the army. So
what ultimately happened to the fifty four after that fateful battle, Well,
this battle pretty much tore the regiment apart. It wouldn't
fight in another major engagement again, and it took until
(20:55):
March eighteen sixty five for Congress to finally order that
the men, who had now unpaid for eighteen months, to
be compensated retroactively for their service. Shaw was buried with
his men in a pitch at the side of Fort
Wagner as a sign of disrespect, But when his father
learned where he was learned how he was buried, he
(21:15):
said he was pleased that his son had been buried
with his men on the field where he fell. He
even prevented later attempts to relocate Shaw's body, and so
with his family definitely assuring his legacy. With acts like that,
it's no surprise Shaw became kind of a martyred figure
after the fact. And if you take a closer look
(21:35):
at his letters, which contain, as historian Joan Wap puts it,
racist and condescending language, you know it may have affected
that reputation a little bit, but certainly not during the
lifetime of his men. I think that's an important thing
to consider. He wasn't um, he wasn't reduced in their eyes.
It seems only two weeks after the attack on Fort Wagner,
(21:57):
one of his sergeants had written, quote, I still feel
more eager for the struggle than I ever yet have,
for I now wish to have revenge for our gallant
colonel and the spilt blood of our captain. We expect
to plant the stars and strikes on the city of Charleston.
Veterans of the fifty four quickly began raising money for
their colonel's memorial, hoping to build something on Morris Island.
(22:19):
They instead wound up sponsoring a school for emancipated children
in South Carolina. Which was named for Shaw, while Boston
abolitionists raised money for a monument in their city. By
eighteen eighty four, the commission was given to Agusta sat Goden's,
who was the biggest American sculptor of that day, and
he finished his work in eighteen ninety seven. But while
some have criticized Saint Goden's for elevating Shaw above his
(22:41):
men on horseback and for modeling the black soldiers from
live subjects instead of old photos, it's generally considered a
brilliant memorial. Alison Luke's, who's the curator of sculpture at
the National Gallery of Art, calls it quote a knockout.
The name Thank Goden's might ring a bell for some
of you guys to we mentioned him or other. Uh.
David McCullum mentioned him a bit and our interview with
(23:04):
him last year. Another random side note to Shaw isn't
the only family member with a memorial. His sister Josephine
Shaw Lowell, who was a social reformer, was the first
woman to earn a public memorial in New York City.
So there you go. Um. I thought a lot about
this story, and in a way it is heroic and
(23:26):
I can definitely see the outcome is positive that African
Americans are able to fight when they want to. But
the story really kind of bothered me in a way too.
It took such an epic failure to catch people's attention
and change minds, and that that disturbed me that it
took so much, and the little the other things, the
(23:48):
fact that they didn't get paid. I mean, there's a
lot that doesn't quite sit right I think about all
the details of the story. And another thing to consider too.
Black soldiers had already fought admirably at Port Hudson Milliicans
spend by this point, but neither event really received much coverage.
So it's almost like it took something this horrible, this
(24:09):
disastrous to catch people's attention, and and yeah, that does
bother me. And I think if you want to learn
a little bit more about the plight or life, depending
on how you look at it of a black soldier,
there's some great resources that the National Park Service has online,
really fantastic accounts of the history of African Americans in
(24:30):
the military in the Civil War. Another resource I might
recommend is the Massachusetts Historical Society. They have portraits of
many of the men of the fifty four. And I
think one criticism of this story sometimes is that you
have Shaw, he's a well defined figure and very much
(24:50):
tied up with the regiment, but it's harder to get
as detailed personal stories from many of the men of
the regiment. It is, after all, a a company of men,
you know, it's a it's a large group of people.
But the Massachusetts Historical Society does have portraits, you know,
portraits of the little drummer boys and stuff who look
(25:11):
like they're in their very early teens at the oldest,
and I think for me that helped put a little
personality behind the men of the regiment and not just Shaw. Yeah,
that's good to know. That's one thing I thought of
two while going through this is that although we did
have a couple of quotes in here from soldiers, but
it would have been nice to know a little bit
more about the individuals who fought. And I think that's
(25:33):
a good place to to start, and to learn a
lot more about African Americans serving in the Civil War. So, um,
if you guys have any other suggestions of of other
resources relating to the Massachusetts fifty fourth or any comments
on the movie, glory what you thought of it? UM
Any historical inaccuracies. I know you guys love to talk
(25:57):
about those. UM. You can email us where at his
podcast at Discovery dot com or also on Twitter at
mist in History and we are in Facebook. And while
you're looking for inaccuracies and glory, you can also check
out some other historical inaccuracies and movies and a top
ten article that we have on our website called ten
(26:17):
historically inaccurate Movies appropriately Enough and you can look that
up by visiting our homepage at www dot how stuff
works dot com. Be sure to check out our new
video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how stup Work
staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities
(26:38):
of tomorrow. The house Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived.
Download it today on iTunes.
Stuff You Missed in History Class News
Hosts And Creators
Holly Frey
Tracy Wilson
Popular Podcasts
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.