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Okla-homey
7/18/2008, 07:48 AM
July 18, 1863: Assault on Battery Wagner and death of Robert Gould Shaw

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On this day, 25 year-old Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and 281 of his troops are killed in an assault on Battery Wagner, near Charleston, South Carolina. Shaw was commander of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, perhaps the most famous regiment of black troops during the war.

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Robert Gould Shaw. Colonel, 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. Harvard Class of 1860.

Black regiments were officered by whites during the Civil War and afterwards because the law required it. Shaw was the son of a prominent Boston abolitionist family and a veteran of the 1862 Shenandoah Valley and Antietam campaigns. When Massachusetts decided to raise and arm black troops, young Shaw, then 24, was selected to serve as this first one's commander. The regiment included two sons of abolitionist Frederick Douglass and the grandson of author and poet Sojourner Truth.

Battery Wagner stood on Morris Island, guarding the approach to Charleston harbor. It was a massive earthwork, 600 feet wide and made from sand piled 30 feet high. The only approach to the fort was across a narrow stretch of beach bounded by the Atlantic on one side and a swampy marshland on the other. Union General Quincy Gillmore headed an operation in July 1863 to take the island and seal the approach to Charleston.

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The assault this day in 1863 was from the south up the beach to the north attacking Wagner's southern face. Thus, the images of the film "Glory" are actually the opposite of what actually transpired.

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Reverse this screenshot from the movie "Glory" and you will have a generally accurate image of the scene just before the 54th stepped off.

Not only was the objective tactically significant because its reduction would deprive Charleston of a significant defense of its harbor, it was morally significant. From that spit of land south of the harbor entrance, SC troops had fired the opening shots of the war when they fired on a US-flagged vessel attempting to enter the harbor to resupply and reinforce US troops garrisoning Ft. Sumter in the early spring of 1861.

Shaw and his 54th Massachusetts were chosen to lead the assault on July 18. The 54th was tired because it had been involved in sporadic combat operations in and around Charleston for several days, but nevertheless, Shaw volunteered to lead the mission against Wagner. His writings tell us Shaw did so in order to prove the courage, resolve and worth of black troops to detractors who believed they would not stand-up in the face of a determined enemy.

US naval gunfire and land-based artillery battered Battery Wagner all day on July 18, but the barrage did little damage to the fort and its garrison. Most of the battery's defenders took shelter in the installation's central "bombproof" shelter. Unbeknownst to the Federals, they would emerge generally unscathed when the US gunfire ceased and would quickly "stand to" in order to repel the infantry assault.

At 7:45 p.m., the attack commenced. The assault force had to cover 1,200 yards down the beach to the stronghold, facing a hail of fire from the Confederates. It was thought the dusky conditions might help.

Shaw's troops and elements of other Federal regiments penetrated the fortification at two points but did not have sufficient numbers to secure the objective. Over 1,500 US troops fell or were captured to the Confederates' 222.

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Bas-relief by noted sculpter Auguste St. Gaudens in Boston memorializing the gallant Shaw and his regiment.

The US fallen were buried in a mass grave on the island by the Confederate defenders. Shaw himself was fittingly buried among the men he led. It should be noted this was not done to honor Shaw. Instead, the Rebels tossed Shaw's remains in among his soldiers as a form of derision. We know this because of local press accounts that related Shaw was buried "in a ditch with his his n------s." A Charleston diarist, Susan Middleton wrote to her cousin that she was informed by a Confederate officer serving on Morris Island that "our officers refused to let the Yankees have his body...and sent word he should 'lie with his brethren.'" But Shaw's parents, when they heard of it, were pleased and believed that was the way their son would have wanted it. They wrote to US BG Gilmore and asked him to cease efforts to recover Shaw's body and "prevent the disturbance of his remains or those brave men buried with him."

Despite the failure, the battle proved that free black forces could not only hold their own but also excel in battle. The experience of Shaw and his regiment was memorialized in the critically acclaimed 1990 movie Glory, starring Mathew Broderick, Denzel Washington, and Morgan Freeman. Washington won an Academy Award for his role in the film.

Postscript:

Sgt William Carney, a senior NCO of the 54th Mass., was wounded in the assault, but despite his wound, Carney refused to retreat until he removed the regiment's national colors, and though successful, he was shot again in the process. The 54th itself lost 281 of its 600 men in its brave attempt to take Battery Wagner, which throughout the war never fell by force of arms.

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Period photo of Carney made a few months after the assault on Battery Wagner. Still recovering from his wounds, Carney is seen with the colors he carried while supporting himself with a cane.

In 1900, Carney was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on Morris Island SC back on this day in 1863.

Carney's MOH citation:


In the attack on Fort Wagner, South Carolina, on July 18, 1863, Sergeant Carney was advancing with his regiment when the color sergeant was shot down. Rushing to the flag, Sergeant Carney hoisted it and gallantly led the regiment to the parapet of the fort where he planted it. Within twenty minutes Sergeant Carney and his flag were alone, surrounded only by dead and wounded as the Union troops fell back. As dusk fell Sergeant Carney saw a group of soldiers approaching and, mistaking them for Union forces, raised his flag only to be met with a heavy volley of hostile fire. He wrapped the flag around the staff to protect it, and though wounded repeatedly including a serious wound in his leg, crossed the wide expanse of beach while under continuing enemy fire to bring the colors safely off the field. Before collapsing from his wounds among his surviving and cheering comrades he stated, "Men, I only did my duty. The flag never touched the ground."

The 54th went on to perform honorably in expeditions in Georgia and Florida, most notably at the Battle of Olustee in northern Florida. Carney eventually recovered and was discharged with disability on June 30, 1864. After the war, Carney went to work for the US Postal Service and spent the rest of his life as a letter carrier in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

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Highly romanticized engraving of the battle of Olustee

William Harvey Carney died at his home in New Bedford on December 9, 1908, and is buried in the Oak Grove Cemetery there. His final resting place bears a distinctive stone, one claimed by less than 3500 Americans.

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The exploits of the 54th Mass were made into a feature motion picture titled "Glory" starring Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman and Matthew Broderick.

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Partial Qualifier
7/18/2008, 10:42 AM
One of my favorite movies of all time.

"TEAR IT UP!! TEAR IT UP!! TEAR IT UP!!"

:)

47straight
7/18/2008, 11:13 AM
If I recall, the beach containing the graves of the soldiers is now in the ocean.