Reference Entry
ASSAULT ON FORT WAGNER
Outside Charleston, South Carolina, a sand and earth fortification called Fort Wagner guarded the approaches to the harbor and symbolized Confederate defiance. On the evening of July 18th, 1863, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, one of the first African American regiments raised in the Union Army, led a frontal assault across a narrow strip of beach under heavy artillery and rifle fire.
Dated Historical Context
A RECORDED MOMENT IN HISTORY
Assault on Fort Wagner
Outside Charleston, South Carolina, a sand and earth fortification called Fort Wagner guarded the approaches to the harbor and symbolized Confederate defiance. On the evening of July 18th, 1863, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, one of the first African American regiments raised in the Union Army, led a frontal assault across a narrow strip of beach under heavy artillery and rifle fire. Their colonel, Robert Gould Shaw, fell at the head of his men as they reached the enemy parapet, and the regiment suffered devastating casualties in brutal hand-to-hand combat. The attack failed to seize the fort, but the courage displayed by the 54th Massachusetts challenged prejudices about Black soldiers and their place in combat units. In the months that followed, their example helped spur wider enlistment of African American troops, giving the Union Army a crucial infusion of manpower that would shape the remainder of the war.
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