The second assault on Fort Wagner, the Confederate fort on Morris Island, guarding entry into Charleston Harbor, made immortal by the film Glory (1989) depicting the attack of the 54th Massachusetts. The 54th sustained the following casualties out of 600 men: 29 killed, including the commander of the regiment, 25 year old Colonel Robert Shaw, 15 captured, 52 missing in action and 149 wounded. The white regiments that participated in the attack also sustained heavy losses. A total of 1515 Union casualties against approximately 174 Confederate casualties. Ironically, Fort Wagner would be abandoned by the Confederates in September, it being too difficult to keep the Fort supplied in the teeth of a continual Union bombardment, and the water supply in the Fort being contaminated by the number of corpses in the soil surrounding the fort from the two unsuccessful assaults.
The courage shown by the men of the 54th put the lie to the fairly common belief, completely at variance with history, that black men could not make good soldiers. The 54th would go on to fight in several more battles during the course of the War.
Sergeant William Carney of the 54th earned a Medal of Honor in the assault. Despite being wounded several times he placed the national flag on the parapet of Fort Wagner, and when the 54th retreated he brought back the flag in spite of being wounded twice more. He told the men he gave the flag to: “Boys, I only did my duty; the old flag never touched the ground!”
His Medal of Honor citation:
“When the color sergeant was shot down, this soldier grasped the flag, led the way to the parapet, and planted the colors thereon. When the troops fell back he brought off the flag, under fierce fire in which he was twice severely wounded.”
