Service of the 54th The Battle for Fort Wagner
Item contributed by Massachusetts Historical Society
Located on Morris Island, Fort Wagner (or Battery Wagner) guarded the front entrance of Charleston Harbor. In an attempt to gain control of Morris Island, US General Gillmore ordered an assault on the heavily fortified Fort Wagner. Armed with fourteen cannons, this sand and earthen fortification provided protection against assaults on the city of Charleston.1
This photograph is included in Captain Luis Emilio’s collection of photographs related to the regiment, now at the Massachusetts Historical Society.
1. Douglas Egerton, Thunder At the Gates: The Black Civil War Regiments That Redeemed America (Philadelphia, PA: Basic Books, 2016); Luis F. Emilio, A Brave Black Regiment: History of The Fifty-Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry 1863-1865 (Boston: The Boston Book Company, 1864).
About item:
Photograph, circa 1863-1864, 5.5 cm x 8.7.
From the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment photographs.
Photo. 72.84.