Early February 1863, Governor John A. Andrew of Massachusetts's had the first call for black civil war soldiers. In 2 weeks 1,000 black African American soldiers had showed up to fight. Many weren't from Massachusetts, but from other states and even Canada. A forth of the soldiers came from the Caribbean. The two sons of the abolitionist Fredrick Douglas even showed up. Robert Gould Shaw, a young white man, was chosen by Andrew to lead the 54th regiment.
May 28th 1863, 1007 black soldiers and 37 white officers lined up in Boston to go down to the southern battlefield. They did this because of the announcement that black soldiers would be sold into slavery, and that white officers in charge of them will be executed. “I know not,” Governor Andrew said, “where in all human history to any given thousand men in arms there has been committed a work at once so proud, so precious, so full of hope and glory as the work committed to you.” http://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/the-54th-massachusetts-infantry |
Glory
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