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Much on "Negro" troops... Great letter by a soldier of the Mass. 54th...
Much on "Negro" troops... Great letter by a soldier of the Mass. 54th...
Item # 721391
December 23, 1863
NEW YORK TRIBUNE. Dec. 23, 1863
* Negro soldier Robert John Simmons letter
* 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
* Fort Wagner on Morris Island heroism
* American Civil War in South Carolina
Although the front page--and other pages--have fine reporting on the Civil War, the best content is found on pages 4 and 9. They contain: "A Rebel Letter" from Montgomery, Ala., beginning: "Dear Sir: We have been deceived in reference to the price of negroes in Mississippi...". Also: "The Fight at Moscow, Tenn.--Great Bravery of Colored Troops" "Pay of Colored Troops" and also: "The Coal Fields of Pennsylvania" is a letter from Wilkes Barre.
But the best item is: "A Negro Soldier's Letter" which is prefaced with: "The following is a letter written by Sergeant R. J. Simmons of the 54th Massachusetts, just before the assault upon Fort Wagner. In that assault the writer was wounded and taken prisoner. His subsequent fate can only be conjectured. How well he fought the world knows; how well he can write, let this letter testify:...".
What follows is his great letter headed: "Fifty-Fourth Regiment on the March" and signed by him in type: R. J. Simmons.
Simmons is a person of some note, with a very lengthy Wikipedia report on him, within which is printed the text of this letter. This is likely the only newspaper in which this famous letter was published.
The Mass. 54th regiment came to prominence with the 1989 film "Glory" which focused on its white commander, Robert Shaw.
Twleve pages, very nice condition.
AI notes: In 1863, Robert John Simmons, a Bermudian who served as 1st Sergeant in Company B of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, wrote a vivid letter from Folly Island, South Carolina, describing his regiment’s preparations to assault Fort Wagner, a pivotal Confederate stronghold near Charleston. Dated July 18, the letter recounts a recent skirmish on James Island in which Simmons and roughly 250 men faced a vastly superior enemy force of about 900, describing how “bullets fairly rained around us” yet expressing his faith that God had protected him through this “fiery, leaden trial.” His writing conveys both the immediate dangers of picket duty and the broader emotional weight of combat, reflecting the courage and resolve of African-American soldiers at a time when their valor was often doubted or dismissed. Published later that year in the New York Tribune, Simmons’s letter stands as a rare first-person testimony from a Black soldier during the Civil War, offering insight into the hardships, discipline, and moral conviction that underpinned the service of the 54th Massachusetts, whose assault on Fort Wagner would become a symbol of African-American military heroism and sacrifice.
Category: Yankee
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