Massachusetts 54th
A look at the African American Regiment
Who were the Massachusetts 54th
they were African Americans that were willing to fight for their freedom.
Training
they were trained the same things as the white soldiers. they had to learn the basics before they could do that though. they had to learn left and right and how to count and march.
Discrimination
they had to face discrimination even from the government. The whit soldiers got paid $3 more than the African Americans.
Their Arrival
when they got to South Carolina there was an assignment that a group of soldiers had to go on. The Group that went on this assignment would probably be the first to die. Every single one of the Massachusetts 54th volunteered not because they had to but because they were willing to die so that their people could be free.
Manual Labor
At the first battle they thought they were going to fight but they were wrong. They ended up doing the jobs that nobody wanted like moving dead bodies or digging holes for the bathrooms.
First Assignment In Georgia
they had to do all of the things that were bad to the southerners. they burned their barns live stalk and resources that they couldn't take with them. the thing they could use they had them take it for the use of the army.
First to Attack
the reason it was so dangerous because they had to run up a sand hill in open areas to get to the fort.
About the Attack
Most of the men who were in the front lines died because they were just running out in the open. Very few of the African Americans that made were in the battle lived
The Outcome
Even though all of those men gave their lives to capture the fort they were not successful the fort was just too heavily guarded.
James Island
The Rebel Army tried to sneak up on them at midnight and they ended up making an attack on the fort where 45 men were killed missing or wounded