Hide Article Text (OCR)
Negro Troops and White Officers,; Eyeiybody is aware that the propositipn to arm negroes was at first generally received wiih. disapprobation; Many loyal men, vic-t) m s to the prejudices • of their education, d eemed it inexpedient, because they doubted the courage of the negroes. They argued thatbecause they had for so many generations been looked on as an inferior caste; for so long a time had been hewers of wood and drawers of water, they would be deficient in that spirit and dash so necessary to make a good soldier. Port Hudson, Milli-ken7s Bend, James Island, and especially Battery Wagner, have dispelled these illusions. The night attack on Wagner equals in daring any action of this■war, so full of deeds of heroism. All accounts agree in affirming their steadiness and courage. The 54th Massachusetts regiment held the right of the stormingcolumn, its right wing commanded by thebrave Colonel Shaw, the left by Lieutenant Col. Edwakd IST. Hallowell ; it advanced under a storm of shot and shell with inveterate resolution. At the distance of a hundred yards the garrison of the battery opened a terrible fire of musketry, but the brave soldiers of the 54th crossed the ditch, sealed the parapet, took the works, and held them for more than an hour. Of nineteen officers who went into; the fight, but five came out unhanded. Colonel Shaw fell dead in the fort; Lieutenant Colonel Hallowell, a gallantfellow-citizen, thrice wounded, fell from thefort into the ditch, crawled thence to the beach, and was finally brought off by his men. Of the six hundred and fifty men in tb e regiment, two hundred and eighty were killed or wounded. In these glorious deeds we haye reason for special pride, for at least three hundred of the men of the 54th were reci uited in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. Unquestionably, both men and officers displayed a sublime courage ; unquestionably, though driven from the fort, they achieved a great victory, for they triumphed once more over the prej udice against the use of negro troops, which, we regret to say, still ; lingers in the Nbrfcli. Their defeat by the rebels does not in the least injure the national cause, but their moral victor? is of
Newspaper Details
Philadelphia Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Wed, Aug 05, 1863
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
University O.
PA, USA 07 Nov 2022
Other Publications Near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia Penny Post
Philadelphia Minerva
Philadelphia Magazine or American Monthly Museum
Philadelphia Desert to the True American
Philadelphia Arminian Magazine
