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This Veteran's Day we remember the Massachusetts 54th Regiment. The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment was one of the first official black units in ...the U.S. armed forces. Their courageous assault on Fort Wagner played a key role in bringing about an end to slavery. Early in February 1863, the abolitionist Governor John A. Andrew of Massachusetts issued the Civil War’s first call for black soldiers. Massachusetts did not have many African-American residents, but by the time 54th Infantry regiment headed off to training camp two weeks later more than 1,000 men had volunteered. Many came from other states, such as New York, Indiana and Ohio; some even came from Canada. One-quarter of the volunteers came from slave states and the Caribbean. Fathers and sons (some as young as 16) enlisted together. The most famous enlistees were Charles and Lewis Douglass, two sons of the abolitionist Frederick Douglass. The 54th lost the battle at Fort Wagner, but they did a great deal of damage there. Confederate troops abandoned the fort soon afterward. For the next two years, the regiment participated in a series of successful siege operations in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The 54th Massachusetts returned to Boston in September 1865. (Depicted in the photo here) The 1989 movie Glory told the story of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry. It won three Academy Awards.

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