When General Strong, now Shaw’s brigade commander, heard of the bravery of the 54th on James Island, he asked the colonel if he and his regiment would lead the attack on Fort Wagner. Shaw and his men readily agreed and prepared to lead the charge across a narrow beach obstructed by felled branches, crisscrossed wire, and a deep moat–all of which were constructed to slow the attackers, making them vulnerable to enemy fire. Eight all-white units were to follow. All day long, Union artillery bombarded Fort Wagner in an effort to soften the Confederate defense and minimize the bloodshed that would inevitably follow. Late in the day Shaw arranged the 600 able-bodied men of his regiment into two wings of five companies each and moved them slowly up the beach. He assigned Company B to the right flank, using the surf as its guide. The other companies lined up on its left.

At dusk, General Strong addressed Shaw and his men. Pointing to the flag bearer, he said: ‘If this man should fall, who will pick up the flag?’ Shaw stepped forward. ‘I will,’ he said. Addressing his troops with final words of inspiration, Shaw reminded them: ‘The eyes of thousands will look on what you do tonight.’ Then, drawing his sword, the young Boston Brahmin barked: ‘Move in quick time until within a hundred yards of the fort, then, double-quick and charge!’ Quickstep became double-quick, and then a full run, as Confederate riflemen on the ramparts of the fort let loose a torrent of fire upon the Union soldiers. Men fell on all sides, but those who were able continued the charge with Shaw in the lead.

Company B passed through the moat to the base of the fort where canister, grenades, and small arms fire rained down on them. Surrounded by bloodshed, the 54th’s commander realized that he could not retreat, and he ordered the final assault on the fort. Shaw somehow managed to reach the parapet before a Confederate bullet pierced his heart.

‘Men fell all around me,’ Lewis Douglass later wrote. ‘A shell would explode and clear a space of twenty feet, our men would close up again, but it was no use we had to retreat, which was a very hazardous undertaking. How I got out of that fight alive I cannot tell, but I am here.’

The intense fire mowed down the color bearers. Sergeant William Carney, a barrel-chested 23-year-old, seized the national flag and planted it upon the fort’s parapet. The men of the 54th fought gallantly for about an hour until Confederate guns forced them to abandon their position. Before retreating, Carney once again grasped the flag, and despite bullets in the head, chest, right arm, and leg, he returned it to Union lines. His heroism earned him the distinction of being the first of 21 black men during the war to earn the Medal of Honor.

Subsequent waves of Federal troops tried for two hours to take the fort but failed, and casualties mounted by the hundreds. At the end of the assault, the Union had lost 1,515 killed, wounded or missing. Of that number, 256 were black soldiers from the 54th Massachusetts.

The following morning revealed a grisly scene. The dead lay in contorted positions along the beach, their fingers and legs stiffened from rigor mortis. The soft but painful cries and moans of the dying could be heard, begging for help.

A few days after the siege, a Union party under a flag of truce requested the return of Shaw’s body. Brigadier General Johnson Hagood, Fort Wagner’s new commander, reportedly answered, ‘We buried him in the trench with his niggers.’ Learning of Hagood’s reply, Colonel Shaw’s father declared, ‘I can imagine no holier place than that in which he is, among his brave and devoted followers, nor wish for him better company.’

From a military standpoint, the assault on Fort Wagner proved to be a costly failure. The blame rested on the shoulders of commanding general Quincy A. Gillmore and his commander in the field, Brigadier General Truman Seymour, who had not ordered the usual preparations for such an assault–no one sent out guides to check the terrain in advance or dispatched lines of skirmishers to soften the enemy. Nor had the 54th ever practiced storming a fort. Nevertheless, the assault proved to be a turning point for black soldiers, serving to dismiss any lingering skepticism among whites about the combat readiness of African Americans. ‘I have given the subject of arming the Negro my hearty support,’ General Ulysses S. Grant wrote to President Lincoln in August. ‘They will make good soldiers and taking them from the enemy weakens him in the same proportion they strengthen us.’

When other Union generals remained recalcitrant, Lincoln responded swiftly. ‘You say you will not fight to free Negroes,’ he said. ‘Some of them seem to be willing to fight for you. When victory is won, there will be some black men who can remember that, with silent tongue and clenched teeth, and steady eye and well-poised bayonet, they have helped mankind on to this great consummation. I fear, however, that there will also be some white ones, unable to forget that with malignant heart and deceitful speech, they strove to hinder it.’

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This article was written by William C. Kashatus and originally appeared in the October 2000 issue of American History magazine. For more great articles be sure to pick up your copy of American History.

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