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 10th of July, the Union again
attempts to take the massive sand fortification protecting Charleston, South
Carolina, this time assigning the 54th 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 54th
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 54th 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 54th 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 54th
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.
