This is the anniversary of the Battle of Fort Wagner

July 18, 1863, during the American Civil War, the Battle of Fort Wagner was fought. The assault on Fort Wagner on Morris Island ended as a crushing victory for the Confederacy; but the role that the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry regiment played in the assault was so heralded in the northern press that the battle ultimately helped secure a Union victory in the Civil War.

The 54th was the first formal African American regiment raised in the North. Most White Americans, even many who staunchly opposed slavery, believed that Blacks lacked the discipline and the courage to make good soldiers – even though Blacks had played a major role in the American Revolution 78 years earlier. The Battle of Fort Wagner and the 54th was immortalized in the movie – 'Glory.'

The 54th was led by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, a white officer from a prominent abolitionist family. The unit was comprised of free Black men, many of them from Massachusetts. Lewis Douglass, the oldest son of publisher and prominent abolitionist Frederick Douglass, was a sergeant major in the 54th.

Fort Wagner was a heavily fortified Confederate position on Morris Island, guarding Charleston Harbor. Union artillery pounded Fort Wagner for a day. Then a frontal assault on the heavily defended fortification was launched by the 54th Massachusetts.

Because this was on a barrier island the approach to the fort was narrow and exposed. This meant that 1) the Confederate defenders saw the 54th coming and 2) they were able to rain cannon and musket fire on the 54th as they approached.

The 54th reached the parapet and was able to engage in heavy hand-to-hand combat with the Confederate defenders, but was ultimately repelled along with the two White regiments that followed the 54th's route of attack. The movie had elements of the 54th actually breaching the fort's defenses and fighting inside the fort – this is an exaggeration by the movie writers – in reality they did not get that far.

The Union was mauled at Fort Wagner. The attacking three regiments suffered over 1,500 casualties. Colonel Shaw (played by Matthew Broderick in the movie) was killed on top of the fort's ramparts. The 54th was effectively wiped out. Nearly half of the regiment was killed, wounded, or captured at Fort Wagner.

Sergeant William Carney saved the regiment's flag from the being lost on the battlefield despite suffering multiple wounds. His actions that day led him to becoming the first Black to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

The Union victory at Gettysburg on July 3rd is rightly viewed as the turning point in the War; but that win came at an enormous human price in lives lost – many of them Irish. When news of the Union's casualties reached New York City protesters against the draft rioted on July 13 - 16 and Union troops had to be dispatched to put down the riots. The official death toll was 120, but some historians estimate that as many as 1,200 people were killed (both by the rioters and the troops that suppressed the riots). Black fled Manhattan and the population of the city had dropped by 1865.

The Battle of Fort Wagner proved that Blacks would not run in the face of cannon fire and that they had the discipline to serve in even the harshest combat conditions. This revelation combined with a growing reluctance by many in the north to enlist led to the formation of more Black regiments. Eventually 175 Black regiments were formed and an estimated 178,000 Black men (both free and freed slaves) served on the Union side in the Civil War. The South had a much larger population of Blacks to draw from; but most of the Blacks served a vital role in the Confederate Army as laborers, teamsters, hospital orderlies, and even musicians; but (unlike the American Revolution) the South did not systematically promise to free any slave that served. Black regiments were never created and Blacks were not formally allowed into combat roles in the Confederate Army until March 1865. By that time the war was effectively lost as the Confederacy had been entirely unable to replace its losses after Vicksburg and Gettysburg. The Lincoln administration decision to set aside racism for battlefield needs versus Jefferson Davis's kowtowing to the concerns of wealthy southern slaveholders effectively doomed the southern cause.

The Battle of Fort Wagner and the heroism of the 54th Massachusetts set the standard that set Union military policy for the remaining 22 months of the war.