Exhibition dates: 15th September, 2013 – 20th January, 2014

Curators: Sarah Greenough, Senior Curator and head of the department of photographs, and Nancy Anderson, head of the department of American and British paintings

 

 

William Earle Williams (American, b. 1950)
Folly Beach, South Carolina, 1999
1999
Gelatin silver print
Image: 19.05 x 19.05cm (7 1/2 x 7 1/2 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Mary and Dan Solomon Fund

 

This photograph is part of William Earle Williams’ series Unsung Heroes: African American Soldiers in the Civil War, depicting locations where black troops served, fought, and died.

 

 

“A man’s face as a rule says more, and more interesting things, than his mouth, for it is a compendium of everything his mouth will ever say, in that it is the monogram of all this man’s thoughts and aspirations.”

Arthur Schopenhauer

 

 

Now this is portrait photography, and all done with relatively long exposures. By god did they know how to take a photograph that has some presence, some frame of mind that evidences a distinct point of view. I had the best fun assembling this posting, even though it took me many hours to do so. The details are exquisite – the hands clasped on the lap, the hands holding the pipe and, best of all, the arched hand with the fingers gently touching the patterned fabric – such as you don’t observe today. The research to find out as much as I could about these people was both fascinating and tragic: “Abraham Brown accidentally killed himself while cleaning his gun on July 11, 1863.”

It is interesting to see the images without an over-mat so that you can observe the backdrop and props in the photographers studio, captured on the whole plate. The narrative external to the matted image, outside the frame. But this view of the image gives a spurious reading of the structure and tension points of the photograph. Any photographer worth his salt previsualises the image and these photographers would have been no different. They would have known their studio, their backdrops and props, and would have known which over-mat they were going to place the finished image in (chosen by themselves or the client). Look at any of the images I have over-matted in white and see how the images come alive in terms of their tension points and structure. How the body takes on a more central feature of the image. How props such as the American flag in Private Abraham F. Brown (1863, below) form a balancing triangle to the figure using the flag, the chair and the trunk as anchor points. This is how these images were intended to be seen and it is this form that gives them the most presence and power.

While it is intriguing to see what lies beyond the over-mat this continuum should not be the centre of our attention for it is the histories, subjectivities and struggles of these brave men that should be front and centre, just as they appear within this cartouche of their life.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

PS. I have just noticed that the Ambrotype by an unknown photographer Unidentified Private, Company I, 54th Massachusetts Regiment (1863, below) and the Albumen print by an unknown photographer Private James Matthew Townsend (1863, below) are taken in the same studio – notice the table and fabric and the curtain at right hand side. They were probably taken at the same sitting when both men were present. One obviously chose an Ambrotype and the other an Albumen print, probably because of cost?

Many thankx to the National Gallery of Art, Washington for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

 

 

 

 

Unknown photographer
Unidentified Private, Company I, 54th Massachusetts Regiment (details)
1863
Ambrotype
Overall: 11.2 x 8.6cm (4 7/16 x 3 3/8 in.)
Image: 8.7 x 6.4cm (3 7/16 x 2 1/2 in.)
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

 

 

Unknown photographer
Private Abraham F. Brown
1863
Tintype
Mat: 17.8 x 12.7cm (7 x 5 in.)
Image: 8 x 7cm (3 1/8 x 2 3/4 in.)
Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society

 

This photograph depicts Private Abraham F. Brown, a member of Company E, part of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, the first black regiment raised in the North during the Civil War.

 

 

Unknown photographer
Private Abraham F. Brown (with over-mat)
1863
Tintype

 

Portrait as it would have originally been mated. The outline of the original mat can be seen in the image above.

 

 

Unknown photographer
Private Abraham F. Brown (inverted with over-mat to show background extraneous to portrait)
1863
Tintype

 

Obscured image without overmat in order to show the original painted backdrop behind the figure in isolation.

 

 

Unknown photographer
Private Abraham F. Brown (detail)
1863
Tintype

 

Obscured image without overmat in order to show the original painted backdrop behind the figure in isolation – detail of writing on wheel

 

 

Unknown photographer
Private Abraham F. Brown
1863
Tintype
Mat: 17.8 x 12.7cm (7 x 5 in.)
Image: 8 x 6.5cm (3 1/8 x 2 9/16 in.)
Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society

 

Abraham F. Brown (American, b. c. 1833-1863)

Private Abraham F. Brown probably had his portrait made shortly after the 54th arrived in SC in June 1863. A sailor born in Toronto, Canada, Abraham Brown accidentally killed himself while cleaning his gun on July 11, 1863, on James Island, northwest of Fort Wagner.

During the Civil War, he served as a Private in Company E of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry of the Union Army, the first regiment in the United States made up entirely of enlisted men of color. He was about 30 years old, single and working as a seaman when he enlisted on 4 April 1863 from Toronto, New York [sic]. He was killed on 11 July 1863 “accidentally by himself” on James Island in South Carolina one week before the Second Battle of Fort Wagner.

Text from the WikiTree website

 

 

Unknown photographer
Private Abraham F. Brown (with over-mat)
1863
Tintype

 

Portrait as it would have originally been mated. The outline of the original mat can be seen in the image above.

 

 

Unknown photographer
Private Richard Gomar
c. 1880
Tintype
Mat: 17.8 x 12.7cm (7 x 5 in.)
Image: 8.5 x 6cm (3 3/8 x 2 3/8 in.)
Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society

 

Richard Gomar (aka Gomes) (American, 1846-1895)

Richard Gomar enlisted in Company H on 17 April 1863 at the age of seventeen and was mustered in on 13 May. He was a labourer from Battle Creek, Michigan. He was mustered out after the regiment’s return to Boston on 20 August 1865. He received a state bounty of $50, and his last known address was Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Portrayed here in a half-length study, Gomar is in civilian clothes and on his waistcoat is wearing a membership badge of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Union veterans’ organisation. This version of the badge was adopted in 1880. According to regulation, Gomar wears the badge on the left breast of his waistcoat, but the tintype process has reversed the image.

Text from the Massachusetts Historical Society website

 

Richard Gomar (aka Gomes) was born on August 12, 1846 in Battle Creek Michigan to Joseph Gomar and Hannah Teabelt. He was working as a laborer before traveling to Boston to enlist on April 17, 1863, and was mustered in as a Private in Company H, 54th Massachusetts Infantry on May 13, 1863, receiving a state bounty of $50. The regiment fought famously at Fort Wagner on James Island, South Carolina where they suffered over 300 casualties, but they also fought bravely in the Battles of Olustee, Florida, Honey Hill, South Carolina, and Boykin’s Mills, South Carolina, as well as many other skirmishes in Florida and South Carolina. Private Gomar was sick at Morris Island, South Carolina from January to March 1865. He mustered out with his company on August 20, 1865 at Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

Gomar enlisted in Troop K, 10th U.S. Cavalry, one of the original “Buffalo Soldier” regiments on August 14, 1867, at Fort Riley, Kansas serving through his discharge on August 14, 1872. The regiment transferred HQ to Fort Gibson, Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma), fighting during the Indian Wars, including against Black Kettle’s band of Cheyenne, and the Comanches out of Camp Wichita.

Following his service in the 10th U.S. Cavalry, he moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa where he worked as a janitor, married Amelia Kelly in 1886 and they adopted a son. Richard Gomar passed away on July 28, 1895 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

David Lay. “Richard Gomar,” on the Stories of the United States Colored Troops Facebook page December 18, 2023 [Online] Cited 24/03/2026. Used under fair use conditions for the purposes of education and research

 

 

H. C. Foster (?)
Private John Gooseberry, musician
1864
Tintype
Mat: 17.8 x 12.7cm (7 x 5 in.)
Image: 10 x 6.8cm (3 15/16 x 2 2/3 in.)
Plate: 10.7 x 8.1cm (4 3/16 x 3 3/16 in.)
Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society

 

John Gooseberry (American, c. 1838-1876)

One of the twenty-one Black recruits from Canada, twenty-five-pear-old Goosberry, a sailor of St. Catharines, Ontario, was mustered into Company E on July 16, 1863, just two days before the fateful assault on Fort Wagner. He was mustered out of service on August 20, 1865, at the disbanding of the regiment. Born in New Orleans, he survived the war but died destitute at about age 38.

Goosberry appears in this full-length photograph wearing his uniform as a company musician, holding a fife and standing before a plain backdrop. The buttons and buckle of the uniform have been hand coloured, and there is an impression remaining on the tintype from an earlier oval frame.

 

 

H. C. Foster (?)
Private John Gooseberry, musician (detail)
1864
Tintype

 

 

H. C. Foster (?)
Private Alexander H. Johnson, musician
1864
Tintype
Mat: 17.8 x 12.7cm (7 x 5 in.)
Image: 8 x 6.5cm (3 1/8 x 2 9/16 in.)
Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society

 

Johnson served as a musician in  Co. C. of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Colonel Shaw referred to Private Alexander Johnson, a 16-year-old recruit from New Bedford, Massachusetts, as the “original drummer boy.” He was with Shaw when the colonel died at Fort Wagner and carried important messages to other officers during the battle.

Alexander H. Johnson enlisted at the age of 16 as a drummer boy in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry. He was the first black musician to enlist during the Civil War, and is depicted as the drummer leading the column of troops on the memorial honouring Colonel Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts in front of the Massachusetts state house in Boston. Alex was adopted by William Henry Johnson, the second black lawyer in the United States and close associate of Frederick Douglass. Johnson’s original surname was Howard and his mother was a Perry. His grandfather was Peter Perry, a native Hawaiian whaler who married an Indian woman.

After the war, Alex Johnson was a member of both the Grand Army of the Republic General George H. Ward Post #10 and of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War in Worcester, Massachusetts. He is frequently mentioned in the book We All Got History by Nick Salvatore. Alexander Johnson died 19 March 1930, at the age of 82, just a few weeks after the 67th anniversary of his enlistment in the 54th.

Anonymous. “Alexander H. Johnson, 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry,” on the Battle of Olustee website Nd [Online] Cited 23/01/2021. Used under fair use conditions for the purposes of education and research

 

 

H. C. Foster (?)
Private Alexander H. Johnson, musician (detail)
1864
Tintype

 

Alexander H. Johnson (American, 1846-1930)

Of all the pictures of 54th Regiment soldiers that we exhibited, the tintype of Private Alexander Howard Johnson, who played the drum, was one of the most haunting. He looks so young, vulnerable, and hesitant. Only 17 years old when he enlisted in 1863, he was, like many other drummers, younger than the regulation minimum age of 18. But the army, desperate for recruits, turned a blind eye.

Although today we tend to think of drummers in their ceremonial role, leading troops in parade, in fact they served a critical function in battle. During the deafening noise and chaos, when it was often impossible to hear an officer’s commands, the drummers issued orders through different drumbeats – one sequence for advance, another for attack, and still others to signal retreat and imminent danger. They also helped carry wounded soldiers to field hospitals and aided medical personnel in amputations and other procedures.

Despite his youth, Private Johnson was probably well prepared to assume such an important and dangerous job. Born Alexander Howard in New Bedford, Massachusetts, he was, for unknown reasons, separated from his parents before the age of five and adopted by William Henry Johnson, a local, influential Black man. Before he enlisted, Alexander was a seaman, another perilous profession that required physical strength along with the ability to work well with others and quickly assess rapidly changing situations. This experience served Private Johnson well. Colonel Shaw singled him out in his letters as “the original drummer boy,” and he was with the colonel when he died in the Battle of Fort Wagner. Private Johnson went on to participate in several other battles, including Major General William Tecumseh Sherman’s infamous March to the Sea.

Unlike many of his comrades, Private Johnson survived the Civil War and returned home to New Bedford. A few years later he moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, where he married Mary Johnson in 1870. They had 17 children, but sadly only five survived into adulthood – a troubling indication of the poor healthcare afforded to African Americans. In 1907 Private Johnson was honored by a local newspaper that proclaimed him one of the best drummers in Massachusetts and noted that there was “hardly a drummer who marches the streets of Worcester who has not received instruction from him.” When Johnson died in 1930, another newspaper noted that he had been an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal order of Union army veterans and one of the first advocacy groups to support voting rights for Black veterans. The obituary also referenced his nickname. While African Americans had not been allowed to be officers during the Civil War, Johnson had always worn a military cap, prompting his neighbours to call him Major.

In 1904 Private Johnson, along with other members of the Grand Army of the Republic, visited the bronze version of The Shaw 54th Regiment Memorial installed across from the State House in Boston, Massachusetts. All agreed that the drummer in the memorial strongly resembled Private Johnson, even though he had never posed for Saint-Gaudens.

They also recognised, as so many others have before and since, that the figure of the drummer – the first in line, the smallest in stature, and the youngest in age – was a compelling symbol of the bravery of even the most vulnerable in the fight for freedom. If not in fact, then in spirit, The Shaw 54th Regiment Memorial is a commanding monument to the heroism of Private Alexander Howard Johnson and all the soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.

Sarah Greenough. “Remembering Private Alexander Howard Johnson,” on the National Gallery of Art website, November 9, 2021 [Online] Cited 24/03/2026. Used under fair use conditions for the purposes of education and research

 

 

Unknown photographer
Private William J. Netson, musician
c. 1863-1864
Tintype
Mat: 17.8 x 12.7cm (7 x 5 in.)
Image: 8.5 x 6.5cm (3 3/8 x 2 9/16 in.)
Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society

 

William J. Netson (American, b. c. 1836 – 1912)

Netson served as a Musician, in  Co. E, of the 54th Massachuetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

Born about 1836, Netson enlisted in the 54th Massachusetts on April 4, 1863. He served in Company E as a musician. While helping a wounded soldier at the Battle of Olustee, horses pulling an artillery caisson knocked him over. Netson sustained an injury to his left eye and back that bothered him for the rest of his life. He died in 1912 in Connecticut.

William Netson was born at sea about 1836. His father was born in the West Indies.

During the Civil War, he was a private in the all Black 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, Company K. Enlisted on 4 April 1863 from Niagara, New York. He was 27 years old, single and working as a labourer when he enlisted. Mustered out 20 August 1865 and settled in Norwich, Connecticut.

Text from the WikiTree website

 

 

Unknown photographer
Private William J. Netson, musician (with over-mat)
c. 1863-1864
Tintype

 

Portrait as it would have originally been mated. The outline of the original mat can be seen in the image above.

 

 

Unknown photographer
Private Charles A. Smith
c. 1880
Tintype
Overall: 8.7 x 6.2cm (3 7/16 x 2 7/16 in.)
Image: 8.7 x 6cm (3 7/16 x 2 3/8 in.)
Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society

 

Charles A. Smith (American, b. c. 1844 – d. unknown)

Smith served as a  Private in Co. C. of the 54th Massachuetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

During the Civil War, he served as a Private in Company C of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry of the Union Army, the second regiment in the United States made up entirely of enlisted men of color. He was about 19 years old, single and working as a laborer when he enlisted. Mustered out 20 August 1865 with his regiment.

Company C participated in the Second Battle of Fort Wagner on 18 July 1863, the Battle of Olustee on 20 February 1864, and picketed at the Coosawhatchie crossroads during the Battle of Honey Hill.

Text from the WikiTree website

 

 

Unknown photographer
Sergeant Henry F. Steward
1863
Ambrotype
Mat: 17.8 x 12.7cm (7 x 5 in.)
Image: 10.5 x 8cm (4 1/8 x 3 1/8 in.)
Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society

 

A twenty-three year old farmer from Adrian, Michigan, Henry Steward enlisted on 4 April 1863 and was mustered in on April 23. As a non-commissioned officer, as were all Black officers, Steward was actively engaged in the recruiting of soldiers for the regiment. He died of disease at the regimental hospital on Morris Island, South Carolina, on 27 September 1863, and his estate was paid a $50 state bounty. Standing at attention with his sword drawn in this full-length study, Steward is posed in front of a plain backdrop, but a portable column has been wheeled in to add detail on the left. Hand-coloured trousers and buttons highlight the uniform in this Ambrotype of Sergeant Steward.

Beginning in March 1863, African American recruits streamed into Camp Meigs on the outskirts of Boston, eager to enlist in the 54th. By May, the regiment numbered more than 1,000 soldiers. Most were freemen working as farmers or labourers; some were runaway slaves. Many of the new enlistees, proud of their professions and uniforms, had photographs of themselves taken. Their pictures recall Frederick Douglass’ 1863 speech before an audience of potential recruits: “Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letters, U.S.; let him get an eagle on his button and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, and there is no power on the earth or under the earth which can deny that he has earned the right of citizenship in the United States.”

Henry F. Steward, shown here, actively recruited for the 54th in Michigan. He had been promoted to sergeant soon after he arrived at Camp Meigs and probably had this portrait made shortly after he received his rifle and uniform. Proud of his new career, Stewart paid an extra fee to have the photographer tint his cap, sword, breastplate, and pants with paint to highlight their importance. Steward survived the Battle of Fort Wagner but died just over two months later, most likely of dysentery.

 

 

Unknown photographer
Sergeant Henry F. Steward (with over-mat)
1863
Ambrotype

 

Portrait as it would have originally been mated. The outline of the original mat can be seen in the image above.

 

 

Continuing its year-long celebration of African American history, art, music, and culture, the National Gallery of Art announces a major exhibition honouring one of the first regiments of African Americans formed during the Civil War. Tell It with Pride: The 54th Massachusetts Regiment and Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Shaw Memorial will be on view in the American galleries on the West Building’s Main Floor from September 15, 2013, through January 20, 2014. The 54th Massachusetts fought in the Battle of Fort Wagner, South Carolina, on July 18, 1863, an event that has been documented and retold in many forms, including the popular movie Glory, released in 1989.

“Then, as today, the soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment captured the imagination: they were common men propelled by deep moral principles, willing to sacrifice everything for a nation that had taken much from them but now promised liberty,” said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art. “This exhibition celebrates the brave members of the 54th, Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Shaw Memorial commemorating their heroism, and the works of art they and the monument continue to inspire.”

The magisterial Shaw Memorial (1900) by Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907), on long-term loan to the Gallery from the U.S. Department of the Interior, the National Park Service, and the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, is considered by many to be one of the finest examples of 19th-century American sculpture. This monument commemorates the July 18, 1863, storming of Fort Wagner by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts, a troop of African American soldiers led by white officers that was formed immediately after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Although one-third of the regiment was killed or wounded in the assault, including Shaw himself, the fierce battle was considered by many to be a turning point in the war: it proved that African Americans could be exemplary soldiers, with a bravery and dedication to country that equaled the nation’s most celebrated heroes.

Part of the exhibition’s title, “Tell It with Pride,” is taken from an anonymous letter written to the Shaw family announcing the death of Robert Gould Shaw. The letter is included in the exhibition and the catalogue accompanying the show.

When Saint-Gaudens created the figures in the memorial, he based his depiction of Shaw on photographs of the colonel, but he hired African American models, not members of the 54th Massachusetts, to pose for the other soldiers. This exhibition seeks to make real the anonymous African American soldiers of the 54th, giving them names and faces where possible. The first section of the exhibition shows vintage photographic portraits of the soldiers, the people who recruited them – including the noted abolitionists Frederick Douglass, Wendell Phillips, Charles Lenox Remond, and Sojourner Truth – and the women who nursed, taught, and guided them, such as Clara Barton, Charlotte Forten, and Harriet Tubman. In addition, the exhibition presents a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, a recruiting poster, a letter written by a soldier, Corporal James Henry Gooding, to President Lincoln arguing for equal pay, and the Medal of Honor awarded to the first African American to earn this distinction, Sergeant William H. Carney, as well as other documents related to both the 54th Massachusetts and the Battle of Fort Wagner. Together, these works of art and documents detail critical events in American history and highlight both the sacrifices and the valour of the individual soldiers.

The second half of the exhibition looks at the continuing legacy of the 54th Massachusetts, the Battle of Fort Wagner, and the Shaw Memorial. By presenting some of the plaster heads Saint-Gaudens made in preparation for his work on the Shaw Memorial, the exhibition discusses its development from 1883, when Saint Gaudens’ concept began to take shape, through the installation of the bronze monument on Boston Common in 1897, to the artist’s final re-working in the late 1890s of the original plaster now on view at the National Gallery of Art.  The exhibition concludes by showing how the Shaw Memorial remains a deeply compelling work that continues to inspire artists as diverse as Lewis Hine, Richard Benson, Carrie Mae Weems, and William Earle Williams, who have reflected on these people, the event, and the monument itself in their own art.”

For over a century, the 54th Massachusetts, its famous battle at Fort Wagner, and the Shaw Memorial have remained compelling subjects for artists. Poets such as Paul Laurence Dunbar and Robert Lowell praised the bravery of these soldiers, as did composer Charles Ives. Artists as diverse as Lewis Hine, Richard Benson, Carrie Mae Weems, and William Earle Williams have highlighted the importance of the 54th as a symbol of racial pride, personal sacrifice, and national resilience. These artists’ works illuminate the enduring legacy of the 54th Massachusetts in the American imagination and serve as a reminder, as Ralph Ellison wrote in an introduction to Invisible Man, “that war could, with art, be transformed into something deeper and more meaningful than its surface violence.

Press release from the National Gallery of Art website

 

 

Unknown photographer
Private Charles H. Arnum
1864
Tintype
Mat: 17.8 x 12.7cm (7 x 5 in.)
Image: 10 x 6.5cm (3 15/16 x 2 9/16 in.)
Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society

 

Charles H. Arum (American, b. c. 1843 – 1943)

Listed as a teamster and a resident of Springfield, Massachusetts, the twenty-one year old Arnum enlisted at Littleton and was mustered in as a private into Company E on November 4, 1863. He served with the regiment until it was disbanded on August 20, 1865. He received $325 as a state bounty, and his last known address was North Adams, Massachusetts.

This full-length study of Arnum shows him in uniform with his hand resting upon the American flag, which is draped over a table in the foreground. Behind him is a painted backdrop representing a seashore military camp.

Text from the Massachusetts Historical Society website

 

 

Unknown photographer
Second Lieutenant Ezekiel G. Tomlinson, Captain Luis F. Emilio, and Second Lieutenant Daniel Spear
October 12, 1863
Tintype
Overall: 8.6 x 6.5cm (3 3/8 x 2 9/16 in.)
Image: 8.3 x 6.2cm (3 1/4 x 2 7/16 in.)
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

 

Ezekiel G. Tomlinson (American, 1841-1885)

Born to John and Catherine Tomlinson within the Quaker faith, Ezekiel, along with his 9 siblings grew up without a Father, as John died about 1850. To assist support of his family, he enlisted as a Seaman in the Port of Philadelphia at the age of 18. Ezekiel volunteered early during the Civil War and enlisted as First Sergeant and then Sergeant Major, 29th Penn Infantry July 9, 1861. This was followed by being mustered in to the 54th Massachusetts Infantry as a 2nd Lieutenant on 15 September 1863. He was quickly recommended for promotion to 1st Lieutenant by the Governor of Massachusetts, taking effect 6 January 1864. During the Florida campaign, he was injured and resigned (disability) May 3, 1864.

Text from the Find A Grave website

 

Daniel Gardner Spear (American, 1842-1871)

During the Civil War, he served as a white commissioned officer – Second Lieutenant – in the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry of the Union Army, the second regiment in the United States made up entirely of enlisted men of color. He was about 23 years old, single and working as a sailmaker when he enlisted as a Second Lieutenant on 19 July 1863 from Boston, Massachusetts. He did not muster, however, until 13 March 1864. Resigned 12 June 1865.

Prior to his service with the 54th, he also served in Company H of the 24th Massachusetts in 1861 and again briefly at the beginning of 1864.

Text from the WikiTree website

 

 

John Adams Whipple (American, 1822-1891)
Colonel Robert Gould Shaw
1863
Albumen print
Image: 8.4 x 5.8cm (3 5/16 x 2 5/16 in.)
Boston Athenaeum

 

Death at the Battle of Fort Wagner

The 54th Regiment was sent to Charleston, South Carolina to take part in the operations against the Confederates stationed there. On July 18, 1863, along with two brigades of white troops, the 54th assaulted Confederate Battery Wagner. As the unit hesitated in the face of fierce Confederate fire, Shaw led his men into battle by shouting, “Forward, Fifty-Fourth, forward!” He mounted a parapet and urged his men forward, but was shot through the heart and died almost instantly. According to the Colors Sergeant of the 54th, he was shot and killed while trying to lead the unit forward and fell on the outside of the fort.

The victorious Confederates buried him in a mass grave with many of his men, an act they intended as an insult. Following the battle, commanding Confederate General Johnson Hagood returned the bodies of the other Union officers who had died, but left Shaw’s where it was. Hagood informed a captured Union surgeon that “had he been in command of white troops, I should have given him an honourable burial; as it is, I shall bury him in the common trench with the niggers that fell with him.” Although the gesture was intended as an insult, it came to be seen as an honour by Shaw’s friends and family that he was buried with his soldiers.

Efforts were made to recover Shaw’s body (which had been stripped and robbed prior to burial), but his father publicly proclaimed that he was proud to know that his son was interred with his troops, befitting his role as a soldier and a crusader for emancipation. In a letter to the regimental surgeon, Lincoln Stone, Frank Shaw wrote:

“We would not have his body removed from where it lies surrounded by his brave and devoted soldiers… We can imagine no holier place than that in which he lies, among his brave and devoted followers, nor wish for him better company – what a body-guard he has!”

Annie Haggerty Shaw, a widow at the age of 28, never remarried. She lived with her family in New York, Lenox and abroad, a revered figure and in later years an invalid. She died in 1907 and is buried at the cemetery of Church-on-the Hill in Lenox.

Text from the Wikipedia website

 

John Adams Whipple (September 10, 1822 – April 10, 1891) was an American inventor and early photographer. He was the first in the United States to manufacture the chemicals used for daguerreotypes; he pioneered astronomical and night photography; he was a prize-winner for his extraordinary early photographs of the moon; and he was the first to produce images of stars other than the sun (the star Vega and the Mizar-Alcor stellar sextuple system), which was thought to be a double star until 2009.

Text from the Wikipedia website

 

 

Unknown photographer
Captain Luis F. Emilio
c. 1863-1865
Tintype
Overall: 12.7 x 7.62cm (5 x 3 in.)
Image: 6.6 x 5.33cm (2 5/8 x 2 1/8 in.)
Pamplin Historical Park and The National Museum of the Civil War Soldier

 

Luis F. Emilio (American, 1844-1918)

Luis F. Emilio (December 22, 1844 – September 16, 1918) was a Captain in the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, an American Civil War Union regiment. Emilio was born on December 22, 1844 in Salem, Massachusetts, the son of a Spanish immigrant who made his living as a music instructor. Although the minimum age for service in the Union army was 18, in 1861 – at age 16 – Emilio gave his age as 18 and enlisted in Company F of the 23rd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. He was noticeably brave and steadfast, and by September, 1862 he had been promoted to the rank of Sergeant.

Emilio was among the group of original officers of the 54th selected by Massachusetts War Governor John Albion Andrew. He mustered in as a 2nd Lieutenant on March 30, 1863. Two weeks later, he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant, and on May 27, he was made Captain of Company E. Captain Emilio emerged from the ferocious assault on Fort Wagner on July 18, 1863 as the regiment’s acting commander, since all of the other ranking officers had been killed or wounded. He fought with the 54th for over three years of dangerous combat, mustering out of the Union army on March 29, 1865, still not yet 21 years old.

Following the war, he went into the real estate business, first in San Francisco, and later in New York. After assisting two old comrades documenting the history of the 23rd Massachusetts regiment in the mid-1880s, he began work on his own documentation of the 54th, publishing the first edition of Brave Black Regiment in 1891, and the revised edition in 1894. He died in New York on September 16, 1918 after a long illness, and was buried in the Harmony Grove Cemetery in Salem, Massachusetts.

Text from the Wikipedia website

 

 

Unknown photographer
Unidentified Private, Company I, 54th Massachusetts Regiment
1863
Ambrotype
Overall: 11.2 x 8.6cm (4 7/16 x 3 3/8 in.)
Image: 8.7 x 6.4cm (3 7/16 x 2 1/2 in.)
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

 

 

Major J. W. Appleton (American, 1832–1913)
Diary of Major J. W. Appleton open to tintype of Private Samuel J. Benton
c. 1865-1885
Handwritten journal with clippings, drawings, and photographic prints
Page size: 35.56 x 20.96 cm (14 x 8 1/4 in.)
Image: 6.5 x 5.2cm (2 9/16 x 2 1/16 in.)
West Virginia University Libraries, West Virginia and Regional History Collection

 

John W.M. Appleton (1832–1913) was a prominent Union officer in the American Civil War, best known as a captain (later Major) in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, the first African American regiment recruited in the North. He led Company A in key combat actions across South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

Samuel J. Benton (b. c. 1845 – d. unknown) was a private in Company A of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry of the Union Army, the first regiment in the United States made up entirely of enlisted men of color. He was about 18 years old, single and working as a waiter when he enlisted on 11 March 1863 in New York, New York. On 30 April 1863, during a private quarrel, he shot and killed Corporal William Wilson. He was tried and sentenced to imprisonment or hanging commuted to ten years imprisonment and served time until December 1865 when he was pardoned by order of the War Department. Discharged 4 December 1865 from Boston, Massachusetts.

Text from the WikiTree website

 

On March 11, 1863, eighteen-year-old Samuel J. Benton enlisted in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. Benton was from Charlton, New York, a small farming community in Saratoga County. The 54th Massachusetts began recruiting in Boston in mid-February, however more soldiers were needed and recruiters turned their attention to states throughout the Northeast and Midwest and even into Canada to locate enough eligible black men to fill the regiment. At the time of his enlistment, Benton was working as a waiter in New York City, and was recruited by Lieutenant John W.M. Appleton. (For his efforts, Appleton was promoted and given command of Company A of the 54th Massachusetts.)

About a month later, William Wilson, a twenty-nine-year-old laborer, also enlisted in the 54th Massachusetts in Indianapolis, Indiana. Wilson joined Benton as a private in Company “A” of the regiment, and was soon promoted to corporal. Together they went off to war after the regiment was fully recruited on May 14, 1863. After a period of intense training under Colonel Robert G. Shaw, the 54th Massachusetts experienced its first heavy combat in July 1863 at Battery Wagner, at the tip of Morris Island, South Carolina. As members of Company “A”, Private Benton, Corporal Wilson, and Captain Appleton were in the thick of the fighting, which cost Colonel Shaw his life, and resulted in 281 casualties for the regiment. 

Captain Appleton, who was wounded twice in the fighting at Battery Wagner, was promoted and sent to recuperate in a hospital in Boston. (He eventually resigned his commission in November 1864 due his wounds.) Benton and Wilson survived the battle unscathed, and continued to campaign in Florida and South Carolina with the 54th Massachusetts until April 1865. Their last campaign, commanded by General Edward E. Potter, consisted of raid through South Carolina’s Low Country, from their base in Georgetown towards Camden. The 54th Massachusetts was tasked with destroying railroads and capturing the “vast amount of rolling stock” that had been trapped during Sherman’s March to the Sea. Sherman’s instructions were blunt, “[The] food supplies in that section should be exhausted [and] those cars and locomotives should be destroyed if to do it costs you 500 men.” 

Potter’s Raid began on April 5, 1865, and continued until April 21st, when news of a general cease fire was received. Potter’s Raid consisted of some of the last engagements of the Civil War, including a battle at Boykin’s Mill on April 18th. The 54th Massachusetts lost two men killed and 13 wounded in the fighting, including Private James P. Johnson, a twenty-one-year-old from Owego, New York, and Company “A” commander Lieutenant Edward L. Stevens, who was the last Union officer killed in action during the war. (Stevens had replaced Lieutenant Frederick Rogers as Company “A” commander, who was wounded earlier in the raid. Stevens was killed by a fourteen-year-old Confederate Home Guardsman.) Upon their return to Georgetown, on March 25th, Potter reported that his men had marched over 300 miles, destroyed 16 locomotives and 245 rail cars, burned 51,000 bales of cotton, and liberated approximately 5,000 slaves. The war for the 54th Massachusetts, was over. 

A few days after their return, the troops in Georgetown began to depart for other posts. Unfortunately, the end of the war did not mean the end of the killing. On March 30th, in what was described officially as a “private quarrel,” Private Benton shot and killed Corporal Wilson. Benton was court-martialed and sentenced to be hanged. (There is no record of where Wilson was buried.) Shortly afterwards, Benton’s sentence was commuted to ten years imprisonment. In August 1865, Benton and eight other civilian inmates of the Charleston Jail escaped. However, he was swiftly recaptured and sent to Fort Delaware, on Pea Patch Island in the Delaware River, in September 1865. Benton also had friends at the Convent of Our Lady of Mercy in Charleston, as Mother Superior Teresa Barry and Sister Xavier Dunn wrote a letter on October 16, 1865, asking for a “pardon of Samuel J. Benton, colored, 54th Massachusetts Volunteers, imprisoned in Fort Delaware for the crime of murder.” 

Edward Townsend, the acting Adjutant General of the U.S. Army replied to the letter from the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, assuring him that the “release of Benton” had been ordered “by letter from this office.” However, what Townsend didn’t reveal was that on December 4th, the War Department had directed the “release and discharge without pay” of all the convicts at Fort Delaware. (The War Department wanted to close Fort Delaware to save money.) As a result, Benton was returned to Boston and officially discharged by the State of Massachusetts in January 1866. The last known information about Benton is from the 1870 Census, where Benton is listed as a boat porter in Ward 10 of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Anonymous text from the This Week in the Civil War Facebook page, March 12, 2025 [Oline] Cited 24/03/2026. Used under fair use conditions for the purposes of education and research

 

 

Unknown photographer
Sergeant Major John Wilson
June 3, 1864
Albumen print
Image: 9.1 x 5.8cm (3 9/16 x 2 5/16 in.)
West Virginia University Libraries, West Virginia and Regional History Collection

 

John Wilson, a painter from Cincinnati, Ohio, had this portrait made a month after he was promoted to sergeant major in May 1864. One of only five African American non-commissioned officers in the regiment at the time, Wilson proudly displayed his stripes and cap with its horn and the number “54.”

 

 

Unknown photographer
Private James Matthew Townsend
1863
Albumen print
Image: 8.6 x 5.8cm (3 3/8 x 2 5/16 in.)
Collection of Greg French

 

 

Abraham Bogardus (American, 1822-1902)
Major Martin Robison Delany
c. 1865
Albumen print
Image: 8.6 x 5.3cm (3 3/8 x 2 1/16 in.)
Courtesy of the National Park Service, Gettysburg National Military Park

 

Martin Robison Delany (May 6, 1812 – January 24, 1885) was an African-American abolitionist, journalist, physician, and writer, arguably the first proponent of American black nationalism. He was one of the first three blacks admitted to Harvard Medical School. Trained as an assistant and a physician, he treated patients during the cholera epidemics of 1833 and 1854 in Pittsburgh, when many doctors and residents fled the city. Active in recruiting blacks for the United States Colored Troops, he was commissioned as a major, the first African-American field officer in the United States Army during the American Civil War.

Text from Wikipedia website

 

Abraham Bogardus (November 29, 1822 – March 22, 1908) was an American Daguerreotypist and photographer who made some 200,000 daguerreotypes during his career.

 

 

Unknown photographer
Captain Norwood P. Hallowell
c. 1862-1863
Albumen print
Overall: 10.16 x 6.35cm (4 x 2 1/2 in.)
Image: 8.8 x 5.9cm (3 7/16 x 2 5/16 in.)
Pamplin Historical Park and The National Museum of the Civil War Soldier
Courtesy of Pamplin Historical Park & The National Museum of the Civil War Soldier

 

Norwood Penrose “Pen” Hallowell (American, 1839-1914)

Norwood Penrose “Pen” Hallowell (April 13, 1839 – April 11, 1914) was an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. One of three brothers to serve with distinction during the war, he and his brother Edward Needles Hallowell both became commanders of the first all-black regiments. He is also remembered for his close friendship with and influence upon future Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., who was his classmate at Harvard and his comrade during the war.

Hallowell’s fervent abolitionism led him to volunteer for service in the Civil War, and he inspired Holmes to do the same. He was commissioned a first lieutenant on July 10, 1861, joining the 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry with his brother, Edward, and Holmes. Hallowell fought in the Battle of Ball’s Bluff on October 21, 1861, in which he distinguished himself by leading a line of skirmishers to hold off Confederate forces. Hallowell then swam across the Potomac River, constructed a makeshift raft, and made several trips to the Virginia bank to rescue trapped Union soldiers before his raft fell apart. Hallowell was promoted to captain on November 26, 1861. He was wounded in the Battle of Glendale on June 30, 1862, and suffered more severe wounds in the Battle of Antietam on September 17. His left arm was shattered by a bullet but later saved by a surgeon; Holmes was shot in the neck. Both took refuge in a farmhouse (a historic site now known as the Royer-Nicodemus House and Farm) and were eventually evacuated.

On April 17, 1863, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, as second-in-command (after Colonel Robert Gould Shaw) of the 54th Massachusetts, one of the first all-black regiments in the U.S. On May 30, he accepted Governor John A. Andrew’s personal request that he be made colonel in command of the 55th Massachusetts, another all-black regiment. He and his regiment were stationed at Charleston Harbor and participated in the siege and eventual taking of Fort Wagner; Hallowell was one of the first to enter the fort after its abandonment. Hallowell faced continuing disability due to his wounds, and was discharged on November 2, 1863.

Text from the Wikipedia website

 

 

J. E. Farwell and Co.
To Colored Men. 54th Regiment! Massachusetts Volunteers, of African Descent
1863
Ink on paper
Overall: 109.9 x 75.2cm (43 1/4 x 29 5/8 in.)
Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society

 

The Massachusetts 54th Regiment was the first military unit consisting of black soldiers to be raised in the North during the Civil War. Prior to 1863, no concerted effort was made to recruit black troops as Union soldiers. At the beginning of the war, black men offered to serve as soldiers for the Union cause, however these offers were rejected by the military establishment and the country as a whole. A few makeshift regiments were raised – including the First South Carolina Regiment with whom the 54th Regiment would serve at Fort Wagner – however most were raised in the South and consisted primarily of escaped and abandoned slaves. (Footnote 1) The passage of the Emancipation Proclamation in December of 1862 provided the impetus for the use of free black men as soldiers and, at a time when state governors were responsible for the raising of regiments for federal service, Massachusetts was the first to respond with the formation of the 54th Regiment. (Footnote 2)

Soon after Governor John A. Andrew was allowed to begin recruiting black men for his newly formed 54th Regiment, Andrew realised the financial costs involved in such an undertaking and set out to raise money. He appointed George L. Stearns as the leader of the recruiting process, and also appointed the so-called “Black Committee” of prominent and influential citizens. The committee and those providing encouragement included Frederick Douglass, Amos A. Lawrence, William Lloyd Garrison, and Wendell Phillips, and $5000 was quickly raised for the cause. Newly appointed officers in the regiment also played an active part in the recruiting process. (Footnote 3)

An advertisement was placed in the Boston Journal for February 16, 1863 addressed “To Colored Men” recruiting “Good men of African descent.” It, like the recruiting posters, offered a “$100 bounty at the expiration of the term of service, pay $13 per month, and State aid for families”; it was signed by Lieutenant William J. Appleton of the 54th. (Footnote 4) Twenty-five men enlisted quickly, however the arrival of men at the recruiting stations and at Camp Meigs, Readville, soon slowed down. Stearns soon became aware that Massachusetts did not have enough eligible black men to fill a regiment and recruiters were sent to states throughout the North and South, and into Canada.

Pennsylvania proved to he a fertile source for recruits, with a major part of Company B coming from Philadelphia, despite recent race riots there. New Bedford and Springfield, Massachusetts, blacks made up the majority of Company C, while approximately seventy men recruited from western Massachusetts and Connecticut formed much of Company D. (Footnote 5) Stearns’s line of recruiting stations from Buffalo to St. Louis produced volunteers from New York, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Canada. Few of the men were former slaves; most were freemen working as seamen, farmers, labourers, or carpenters. By May 1863, the regiment was full with 1000 enlisted men and a full complement of white officers. The remaining recruits became the nucleus of the 55th Massachusetts Regiment, commanded by Norwood P. Hallowell, who, for a short time, had served as second-in-command to Robert Gould Shaw of the 54th. (Footnote 6)

The question of pay to the volunteers became an important issue, even before the regiment’s departure from Boston on May 18. When Governor Andrew first proposed the idea to Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, Andrew was assured that the men would be paid, clothed, and treated in the same way as white troops. As the recruiting posters and newspaper advertisements stated, this included a state bounty and a monthly pay of $13. In July of 1863, an order was issued in Washington fixing the compensation of black soldiers at the labourers’ rate of $10 per month. This amount was offered on several occasions to the men of the 54th, but was continually refused. Governor Andrew and the Massachusetts legislature, feeling responsible for the $3 discrepancy in pay promised to the troops, passed an act in November of 1863 providing the difference from state funds. The men refused to accept this resolution, however, demanding that they receive full soldier pay from the federal government. It was not until September of 1864 that the men of the 54th received any compensation for their valiant efforts, finally receiving their full pay since the time of enlistment, totalling $170,000. (Footnote 7) Each soldier was paid a $50 bounty before leaving Camp Meigs and this is the extent of the bounty that many received. By a later law, $325 was paid to some men, however most families received no State aid. (Footnote 8)

Although the Massachusetts 54th Regiment was the first to enlist black men as soldiers in the North, it was only the beginning for blacks as Union soldiers. By the end of the war, a total of 167 units, including other state regiments and the United States Colored Troops, were raised, totalling 186,097 men of African descent recruited into federal service. (Footnote 9)

Text from the project “Witness to America’s Past” on the Massachusetts Historical Society Collections Online website [Online] Cited 15/01/2014. No longer available online. Used under fair use conditions for the purposes of education and research

 

Footnotes

1/ Burchard, Peter. One Gallant Rush: Robert Gould Shaw and His Brave Black Regiment. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1965, p. xi.

2/ Hargrove, Hondon B. Black Union Soldiers in the Civil War. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1988, p. xi.

3/ Ibid., pp. 77-78.

4/ Emilio, Luis F. History of the fifty-fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 1863-1865. 2nd ed. Boston Boston Book Co., 1894, pp. 8-9.

5/ Ibid., pp. 9-10.

6/ Burchard, Peter. One Gallant Rush: Robert Gould Shaw and His Brave Black Regiment. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1965, pp. 83-90.

7/ Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in the Civil War.. 8 vols. Norwood, Mass.: Printed at The Norwood Press, 4:657.

8/ Emilio, Luis F. History of the fifty-fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 1863-1865. 2d ed. Boston Boston Book Co., pp. 327-328.

9/ Hargrove, Hondon B. Black Union Soldiers in the Civil War. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1988, p. 2.

 

 

Augustus Saint-Gaudens (American, 1848-1907)
Shaw Memorial
1900
Patinated plaster
Overall (without armature or pedestal): 368.9 x 524.5 x 86.4cm (145 1/4 x 206 1/2 x 34 in.)
Overall (with armature & pedestal): 419.1 x 524.5 x 109.2cm (165 x 206 1/2 x 43 in.)
U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, Cornish, New Hampshire, on long-term loan to the National Gallery of Art

 

Even before the war’s end in April 1865, the courage and sacrifice that the 54th Massachusetts demonstrated at Fort Wagner inspired artists to commemorate their bravery. Two artists working in Boston, Edward Bannister and Edmonia Lewis, were among the first to pay homage to the 54th in works they contributed to a fair that benefited African American soldiers. Yet it was not until the late 19th century that Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Shaw Memorial solidified the 54th as an icon of the Civil War in the American consciousness.

Commissioned by a group of private citizens, Saint-Gaudens first conceived the memorial as a single equestrian statue of Colonel Shaw, following a long tradition of military monuments. Shaw’s family, however, uncomfortable with the portrayal of their 25-year-old son in a fashion typically reserved for generals, urged Saint-Gaudens to rework his design. The sculptor revised his sketch to honour both the regiment’s famed hero and the soldiers he commanded – a revolutionary conception at the time. Saint-Gaudens worked on his memorial for 14 years, producing a plaster and a bronze version.

When the bronze was dedicated on Boston Common on Memorial Day 1897, Booker T. Washington declared that the monument stood “for effort, not victory complete.” After inaugurating the Boston memorial, Saint-Gaudens continued to modify the plaster, reworking the horse, the faces of the soldiers, and the appearance of the angel above them. The success of his final plaster earned the artist the grand prize for sculpture when it was shown at the 1900 Universal Exposition in Paris. It was installed at the National Gallery of Art in 1997, on long-term loan from the U.S. Department of the Interior, the National Park Service, and the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, New Hampshire.

Anonymous. “Tell It with Pride: The 54th Massachusetts Regiment and Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Shaw Memorial,” on the National Gallery of Art website Nd [Online] Cited 23/01/2021. Used under fair use conditions for the purposes of education and research

 

 

Richard Benson (American, 1943-2017)
Robert Gould Shaw Memorial
1973
Pigmented ink jet print
Image: 26 x 32.9cm (10 1/4 x 12 15/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Susan and Peter MacGill
© Richard Benson. Courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York

 

In 1973 Richard Benson and Lincoln Kirstein published Lay This Laurel, a book with photographs by Benson, an essay by Kirstein, and poems and writings by Emily Dickinson, Frederick Douglass, and Walt Whitman, among others. It was intended to focus renewed attention on the bronze version of the Shaw Memorial on Boston Common, which had fallen into disrepair.

 

 

Carrie Mae Weems (American, b. 1953)
Restless After the Longest Winter You Marched & Marched & Marched
From the series, From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried
1995-1996
Chromogenic colour print with etched text on glass
Overall: 67.31 x 57.79cm (26 1/2 x 22 3/4 in.)
Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

 

In this piece Carrie Mae Weems appropriated and altered one of Richard Benson’s photographs of the Shaw Memorial. Printed with a blood red filter, it is placed beneath glass etched with words that allude to African Americans’ quest for freedom and equal rights as well as their long struggle to attain them.

 

 

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