The First Second Lieutenant

Union Lieutenant Stephen Atkins Swails the first African American to be promoted to an officer was wounded for the second time April 11^th 1865.

Stephen Atkins Swails was born February 23^rd 1832.  He married and was working in Cooperstown, New York as a waiter prior to the war.  When Frederick Douglass called for recruits for the 54^th Massachusetts Swails enlisted in Elmira, New York as a private.  He became a member of Company “F” and was soon appointed First Sergeant.  Following the assault on Fort Wagner in which the 54^th lost a lot of men, Swails was appointed Sergeant Major on November 12^th 1863.

The 54^th was posted in Florida in early 1864 under Union General Truman Seymour.  Swails was wounded the first time at the Battle of Olustee on February 20^th 1864.  When promotions came out on March 26^th 1864, Swails was promoted to Second Lieutenant.  The promotion made him the first African American to receive a commission in the Union Army.  While the 54^th was on reconnaissance near Camden, South Carolina on April 11^th 1865 Swails was wounded a second time.  They were near a railroad junction when a locomotive was steamed up.  A detachment led by Swails captured the train.  He entered the cab and waved his hat in triumph which drew the attention of a Union sharpshooter who mistook Swails for the engineer, and shot him.  Swails was promoted to First Lieutenant April 28^th 1865.  He was mustered out of service with the rest of the 54^th August 20^th 1865 in Boston, Massachusetts.

After the war Swails became a lawyer and worked for the Freedman’s Bureau.  He settled in South Carolina where he was the mayor of Kingstree, South Carolina from 1868 to 1879.  After Reconstruction and an assassination attempt Swails resigned from office.  He went to work in Washington, DC at the United State Treasury and the United Post Office.  He died May 17^th 1900 and is buried the Friendly Society Cemetery in Charleston, South Carolina.

Michigan's Colored Troops

The 1^st Michigan Colored Infantry was formed February 23^rd 1863 at Camp Ward.

The editor of the Detroit Tribune and Advertiser, Henry Barns wrote and editorial and then a letter writing campaign to have Michigan form a Colored regiment.  The result was the 1^st Michigan Colored Infantry, formed February 23^rd 1863.  Barns do to his work to get organization was made the 1^st first Colonel.  The regiment was made up of men mostly from southern Michigan and Ontario, Canada, and numbered 1,845.  They had artillery, cavalry and a regimental band.  The 1^st was re-named on May 23^rd 1864 to the 102^nd United States Colored Troops.

The 102^nd saw action in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.  They fought with the 54^th Massachusetts at Manchester.  They finished out their service doing occupation duty in the south.  The 102^nd was mustered out on September 30^th 1865, and disbanded in Detroit October 17^th 1865.  They lost 6 killed in action, 5 dead from wounds, and 129 who died from disease.

For more information about the 1st Regiment Michigan Volunteer Infantry

A Letter Writer

A Corporal in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, James Henry Gooding died July 19th 1864 in Andersonville.


James Henry Gooding was born 1837 in Troy, New York. He moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts where he signed onto a Pacific whaling voyage for four years as a cook. Returning from that voyage in 1860 Gooding signed onto the Montevideo for a one year merchant voyage in the Atlantic.

The 54th Massachusetts Infantry opened a recruiting office in New Bedford in February 1863. Gooding enlisted and became a member of Company C. Shortly after enlisting Gooding began writing letters on a bi-weekly bases for the New Bedford Mercury. He received a promotion in December 1863 to corporal. Gooding was with the 54th Massachusetts during the fight for Fort Wagner on July 18th 1863. He was wounded and captured during the Battle of Oustlee in Florida on February 20th 1864. Gooding died July 19th 1864 in the Confederate prison camp at Andersonville, Georgia.

Another web site related to the subject and worth a look is Letter from Corporal James Henry Gooding

Buried Him In A Common Trench

Union Colonel Robert Gould Shaw was killed in the assault on the battery of Fort Wagner on July 18th 1863.



Robert Gould Shaw was born October 10th 1837 in Boston Massachusetts the son of Francis George and Sarah Blake [Sturgis] Shaw. They were a prominent abolitionist family. Shaw’s family lived in a big estate in West Roxbury, and in his early teens he studied and traveled in Europe. He attended Harvard University from 1856 to 1859, but dropped out before graduating.


When the southern states began to secede, Shaw like many young men joined the military, first with the thirty day unit of the 7th New York Infantry and then with the 2nd Massachusetts. While he was serving in 1862 his father asked him to take command of an all black Regiment, the 54th Massachusetts. After careful thought Shaw accepted, although he didn’t think it was likely that a free black unit would succeed. He became impressed with the men of the 54th and when found that black soldiers would receive less pay then white soldiers he inspired boycott until the pay was equalized. Shaw married Annie Kneeland Haggerty May 2nd 1863 just before the unit left Boston.


The 54th Massachusetts was sent to Charleston South Carolina. On July 18th 1863 the 54th along with two brigades of white troops assaulted the Confederate battery of Fort Wagner. Shaw led his men into battle, he mounted the parapet to urge his men forward and was shot through the heart dying instantly. The Confederates intending to insult Shaw had him buried in mass grave with his black soldiers. The Confederate commanding officer; General Johnson Hagood said, had Shaw “been in command of white troops, I should have given him an honorable burial; as it is, I shall bury him in the common trench with the negroes that fell with him." Shaw’s family however claimed they were proud to know their son was buried with his troops.

Honoring The Dead

The Washington Race Course Cemetery saw the burial of Union dead and the first Memorial Day on May 1st 1865.


Many communities set aside a day to mark the end of the Civil War and honor those who had died. Some of the towns who began these early Memorial or Decoration Days included Columbus Mississippi, Carbondale Illinois, and Sharpsburg Maryland, among others. The first of these remembrance is thought to have been held by former slaves on May 1st 1865 at the Washington Race Course in Charleston South Carolina.

The race course was used during the war as prison camp, and contained a mass grave behind the old grandstand of the Union soldiers who died there. Following the end of the war, the former slaves who lived in the area exhumed the bodies of the 257 Union soldiers who died there and reentered them in individual graves. There was a fence built and the area was declared to be a Union cemetery and named the “Martyrs of the Race Course“. It was reported by Charleston newspapers that on May 1st 1865 a crowd of around 10,000 including some 2,800 children attended ceremonies that included sermons, singing, picnicking on the grounds and laying of flowers. The 54th Massachusetts and the 34th and 104th United States Colored Troops drilled and did a march around the cemetery. This then became the first Decoration Day.