PRESENTATION OUTLINE
54th Regiment was consisted of 1,007 black soldiers and 37 white officers.
February 1863 Governor John A. Andrews issued the first call of black soldiers.
The most famous of the enlisted soldiers were Charles and Lewis Douglass sons of Fredric Douglass.
Robert Gould Shaw was picked to lead the 54th Regiment by Governor John Andrews.
On July 18, 1863 John Andrews prepared the 54th Regiment to storm Fort Wagner.
Robert Shaw had 600 of his men in a trench getting ready to fight, but he didn't know that there was 1,700 confederate soldiers waiting inside and ready to fight.
Out of the 600 soldiers that stormed Fort Wagner 281 were either dead or wounded. They left a great deal of damage and soon after the battle the confederate soldiers left.
The 54th Regiment lost the battle at Fort Wagner, but that didn't stop them from leading a series of successful siege operations in South Caralina, Georgia, and Florida.
Robert Shaw's parents found out he died and said, "There is no holier place to die than surrounded by than brave and devoted soldiers."
