54th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry

The 54th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer (Colored) Infantry was the most famous African American regiment to serve in the Civil War, and the first to be recruited entirely in non-Confederate states.

The 54th owed its existence Massachusetts governor John A. Andrew. Until Andrew created the 54th, the first 11 African American regiments in the Union Army were recruited from “free colored” men and former slaves in Union-occupied areas of the Confederacy. These first southern black regiments of “Colored Infantry” were initially used mostly for guard and labor duties. However, the 1st South Carolina (Colored) Regiment proved effective in combat during coastal raiding through Georgia and Florida in February and March of 1863. Three Louisiana “Native Guard” regiments won Union generals’ respect by executing repeated attacks against enemy entrenchments at Port Hudson, Louisiana, in May 1863.

But the U.S. War Department, as well as most northern politicians and generals, still opposed using these African American troops both because they thought them incompetent in combat and out of concern that treating them as regular combat soldiers would lead black soldiers to demand treatment equal to white soldiers. Governor Andrew, an ardent abolitionist, was eager to bring about racial equality, and he thought the best method for African Americans to achieve full citizenship was to fight for it on the battlefield. Frederick Douglass, the leading African American abolitionist and Andrew's close friend, agreed. Douglass argued that taking up arms for the Union was how black men could achieve full citizenship.

Thanks to Andrew's persistence, Army manpower shortages, and his own January 1, 1863, Emancipation Proclamation, Pres. Abraham Lincoln overrode northern racial bigotry. He ordered the War Department to allow Andrew to raise troops for the regiment on January 26, 1863. However, the War Department stipulated that these black troops could be commanded only by white officers. Congress added a further condition that black troops be paid $6.00 less per month than the standard $13.00 Union private's monthly salary.

Despite these racial inequities, black recruits from 24 different states, the District of Columbia, Canada, the West Indies, and even Africa, flocked to the 54th's colors. The regiment's recruits represented the African American elite: 50 percent of them were literate, some were in the professions, and only 25 percent were former slaves. Frederick Douglass's sons, Lewis and Charles, both joined the 54th; the former becoming the regiment's sergeant major. Their father worked successfully with his white abolitionist allies to meet the regiment's full recruiting quota; the surplus troops supplied over and above the regiment's quota of 800 were used to form a second regiment, the 55th Massachusetts.

Governor Andrew persuaded Robert Gould Shaw to assume command of the 54th in early March 1863. Andrew carefully selected the regiment's white subordinate officers as well: Lt. Col. Edward Hallowell, captains William Simkins and Luis Emilio, and Adjutant Garth Wilkinson James shared Shaw's combat experience, abolitionist convictions, and fierce desire to prove black troops equal to white troops. These officers’ letters reveal how conscious and proud they were of the regiment's social as well as military significance. Shortly after its creation, the 54th, along with other black regiments, faced Confederate legislation authorizing the execution of both black Union troops and their white officers. This legislation combined with northern white bigotry to bond the regiment's white officers with their black troops. The 54th's officers and men, in a joint protest, all served without pay until Congress authorized equal wages to black soldiers.

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