Historically Thinking
Glorious Fate: Kevin Levin on the short life and complicated afterlife of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw of the 54th Massachusetts
34:07
On July 18, 1863, the 54th Massachusetts—one of the first Black regiments in the Union Army, and the first raised in the North—led an assault on Fort Wagner, one of the fortifications defending Charleston, South Carolina.
Their attack was preceded by an eight-hour bombardment that did little damage to the fort’s walls or defenders. Moving through heavy Confederate small-arms fire, with their…