54th Mass regiment
During the Civil war, the first American battalion recruiting black soldiers was the 54th Massachusetts Regiment lead by R. Gould Shaw. It was formed by African Americans willing to fight against confederates and slavery. Tonight I watched the movie Glory that I didn't find so great in terms of direction and artistic quality, but it had the huge merit to depict this portion of history that was obscure to many people.
My understanding of the American Civil war is very limited but it really fascinates me. The division of the American nation still seems very acute nowadays: races, religion, politics. But patriotism is definitely of very high value in the American society. I admire (and sometimes laugh at) this high idea of union that people have here. But we have to acknowledge that Europeans are still far from this...
Wikipedia has a few great articles:
- the story of the 54th Regiment,
- Sgt. WH. Harney and the first medal of honor given to an African American,
- The Fort Wagner, Morris Island, South Carolina, where 50% of the regiment got killed during its assault.
My understanding of the American Civil war is very limited but it really fascinates me. The division of the American nation still seems very acute nowadays: races, religion, politics. But patriotism is definitely of very high value in the American society. I admire (and sometimes laugh at) this high idea of union that people have here. But we have to acknowledge that Europeans are still far from this...
Wikipedia has a few great articles:
- the story of the 54th Regiment,
- Sgt. WH. Harney and the first medal of honor given to an African American,
- The Fort Wagner, Morris Island, South Carolina, where 50% of the regiment got killed during its assault.
2 Comments:
The Civil War is a very fascinating period of the American history. My husband is very knowledgeable about that time and he even managed to share his enthusiasm with me! We went to Gettysburg a couple of years ago (a major Civil War battle actually took place there, but you probably know that) and I thought the whole site was as amazing as its history. I think one has to know the history of this country to be able to better understand the behavior of its citizens... What do you think?
Robert Gould shaw lead this regiment and did a great job he even got himself killed for them
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