Part one of term paper
The Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts was established in early 1863 under the direction of colonel Robert Gould Shaw. Shaw was only twenty six years old when he was put in charge of the regiment. He came from a strong abolitionist family in Boston before the war. Before gaining his position as the colonel of the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts, Shaw serv ...

Part two of term paper
... on January 26, the Secretary of War authorized Governor John Andrew of Massachusetts to raise the first African American corps in the North. Prejudicial beliefs that blacks would lack military discipline and fight badly set a negative attitude, but Andrew, a strong abolitionist, supported enlistment of African Americans. Recruitment began in Boston on February 9. By February 21, barracks were readied at Camp Meigs in Readville, outside Boston. Massachusetts had only a small black community, so rec ...