The
barrier island which lies at the geographic center of the events which
transpired there on July 18th, 1863 is today little more than a
strip of eroded sand at the entrance to Charleston Harbor, populated by waving
sea grass and visited occasionally by curious tourists and history buffs. While
the carnage which took place there exactly 150 years ago is well chronicled in
the film GLORY, little remains physically to testify of the strategic value
of the spit of sand which brought it about.
Today I choose to write not about
that battle or the ill-conceived tactical campaign which precipitated it, but
about two men whose backgrounds could not have been more different, but whose
mutual destiny brought them together in that moment of time and place, and
forged a near-mystical bond which is hard to ignore by a devoted story-teller.
Robert Gould Shaw might have been
described as a blue-eyed rich boy, born to a wealthy and prominent Boston
family, and seemingly gifted by happy circumstances to attend Harvard – which
he did for a three-year period – before moving on to a bright and promising
future working in the business of a well-to-do uncle in New York City. When war broke out with the bombing of Fort
Sumter in 1861, Shaw felt impelled to do his part by joining the 7th
New York Regiment in time to participate in the Defense of Washington in a
30-day enlistment. Returning to Boston and finding himself well-suited for
military life he enlisted in the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry as a
First Lieutenant, distinguishing himself in several campaigns including the
battle of Antietam where he was wounded and promoted to Captain.
The young officer’s parents, Francis
Gould and Sarah Sturgis Shaw were dedicated abolitionists and traveled in
social circles of similarly motivated people, including the likes of Nathaniel
Hawthorne and Harriet Beecher Stowe, all of whom shared the belief that African
Americans should be permitted to serve. In fact it was Shaw Senior who
delivered to his son a commission from Massachusetts Governor John Andrews to organize
and command an all-black unit which would be known as the 54th
Massachusetts. Although not particularly enthused about this assignment, and
like most Northern officers doubtful black soldiers would hold up in combat,
Gould would come to love the men he would command and press for their
opportunity to meet the enemy. Without
knowing it at the time, that dream of leading his men into battle would come at
a place known as Battery Wagner on South Carolina’s Morris Island where the 54th
Colored Regiment’s 600 soldiers would lead the attack against strongly-entrenched
and heavily-armed Confederate defenders.
William Harvey Carney had been born
a slave in Norfolk, Virginia with only the name William. With his father, he
escaped the South via the “underground railway”, settling in New Bedford,
Massachusetts where he managed to learn reading and writing, and to develop an
interest in the ministry and a love for his country. Together, with hard work, the father and son
had been able to “purchase” the freedom of their other family members. When war
broke out he decided “I can best serve my
God serving my country and my oppressed brothers.” Borrowing the last name
of a friend named Carney, he enlisted in the newly-formed 54th
Massachusetts Colored Regiment and went proudly off to war with Colonel Robert
Gould Shaw.
In the course of the bloody melee
which came to be known as the 2nd Battle of Fort Wagner, Sergeant
Carney saw his fellow soldiers cut down by the concentration of grape shot and
musket fire which had quickly killed all of the Regiment’s white officers. When
the Sergeant carrying the colors was felled, Carney quickly grabbed the
standard to secure his country’s flag on the parapet for all to see. As the
survivors finally backed away through rising water, Sergeant Carney wrapped the
flag around the pole and followed suit, in the course of which he was severely
wounded at least twice, refusing to accept help in his determination to hold
the standard high. Safe at last, and just before collapsing from his wounds, he
exclaimed “Here it is boys, it never
touched the ground!”
William Carney survived the war,
returned to New Bedford to serve the U.S. Post Office for many years, and 20
years after the battle, became the first African American – in point of time of
action - to receive his country’s highest military award, the Medal of Honor.
Colonel Robert Gould Shaw did not
return home, but was buried in a mass grave with his men in the shifting sands
of Morris Island. His proud parents refused to agree with plans to retrieve his
remains, as had been done for his brother white officers, insisting that he
would have wished to be buried with the men he had led and come to love. He
left behind a young wife of 26 days who never remarried, and a legacy of 200
now-archived personal letters. He died at the age of 25.
Colonel
Robert Gould Shaw explained his devotion to the mission of his Black regiment
with the words:
“We fight for men and women whose poetry has not yet been written.”
Sergeant
William Harvey Carney, the first of twenty African American soldiers who would
win
the Medal of Honor in the American Civil War. The flag he
rescued can be seen today in Boston's Memorial Hall.
Posts
Warfare is a fascinating subject. Despite the dubious morality of using violence to achieve personal or political aims. It remains that conflict has been used to do just that throughout recorded history.
ReplyDeleteYour article is very well done, a good read.