A Brave Black Regiment: The History of the Fifty-Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 1863-1865

"The best account of the famous 54th Massachusetts. . . . The author fought with the regiment during its entire experience, surviving the assault on Fort Wagner about which he wrote with vivid descriptive power."—James M. McPherson



In January 1863 the Union War Department authorized the creation of "a special corps" composed of "persons of African descent"—the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Col. Robert Gould Shaw. Hundreds of free blacks enlisted. When the 54th Massachus...