The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts was organized in early 1863 by Robert Gould
Shaw, twenty-six year old member of a prominent Boston abolitionist family. Shaw had
earlier served in the Seventh New York National Guard and the Second Massachusetts
Infantry, and was appointed colonel of the Fifty-fourth in February 1863 by Massachusetts
governor John A. Andrew.
As one of the first black units organized in the northern states, the Fifty-fourth was
the object of great interest and curiosity, and its performance would be considered an
important indication of the possibilities surrounding the us…
