Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era

by James M. McPherson

assault across a narrow spit of sand against this strong earthwork. The result was predictable; the rebels drove back the attacking brigades and inflicted heavy losses. The 54th took the largest casualties, losing nearly half of its men including Colonel Shaw with a bullet through his heart. Black soldiers gained Wagner’s parapet and held it for an hour in the flame-stabbed darkness before falling back. The achievements and losses of this elite black regiment, much publicized by the abolitionist press, wrought a change in northern perceptions of black soldiers. “Through the cannon smoke of that dark night,” declared the Atlantic Monthly, “the manhood of the colored race shines before many eyes that would not see.” The New York Tribune believed that this battle “made Fort Wagner such a name to the colored race as Bunker Hill had been for ninety years to the white Yankees.”