July 18, 1863---The Battle of Battery Wagner

JULY 18, 1863:           

The Battle of Battery Wagner (The Second Battle of Battery Wagner).  

A scene from "Glory," starring Morgan Freeman and Matthew Broderick

After being repulsed from Battery Wagner on Morris Island on the 10^th of July, the Union again attempts to take the massive sand fortification protecting Charleston, South Carolina, this time assigning the 54^th Massachusetts (U.S.C.T.) to the job under the command of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. 

After an all-day bombardment which did little damage to the fort, the 54^th Massachusetts launched its assault at 7:45 P.M.  In a wartime innovation, the Union uses calcium lights (“limelights”) to illuminate the darkening battlefield. Since the approach route to the fort was narrow and well-dominated by Confederate fields of fire, the Union troops were devastated, but the 54^th Massachusetts managed to take the parapet, where they engaged in vicious hand-to-hand fighting with the Southern defenders.

Over 1,500 Union men were lost in the battle. The Southerners bayoneted any wounded African-Americans they saw or executed any black prisoners they took. 

After the battle, the 54^th retained only 300 of its men. Colonel Shaw was killed (shot and bayoneted at least seven times) and his body was dumped in the mass grave the Rebels dug for the blacks they had killed. Although this was meant to be an insult, Shaw’s father, a leading abolitionist, stated that it was in fact an honor to his son. 

The 54^th Massachusetts was lauded for their valor, and many whites who had doubted the resilience of black soldiers were forced to rethink their prejudices (even in the South). 

The first Medal of Honor given to a black soldier was awarded the color bearer who retrieved the Stars and Stripes from the corpse-strewn field.