Lewis Douglass at Battery Wagner, 18 July 2018

Frederick Douglass called "Men of Color to Arms!" His sons Lewis and Charles responded. Charles was first in line, signing on to the Massachusetts 54th Infantry on March 25, 1863.

Both young men, twenty-two and nineteen-years old respectively, had grown up on their father's history. They had known both John Brown and Shields Green, and suffered the grief, trauma, and fear of their loss after their executions after Harpers Ferry. They had helped the black men, women, and children fleeing slave-catchers. Their time to fight back, to be men, had come. The middle brother Frederick, Jr., did not join, but used his name as his uniform to go south to the western front and recruit among the freedmen.

Lewis had only just become engaged to Amelia Loguen, daughter of his father's friend and comrade in Syracuse, Jermain Loguen. Lewis wrote to her of their journey toward their training at Camp Meigs, in Readville, Massachusetts.:

"It may perhaps be pleasing to you to know something of the manner in which my men that I left Syracuse with came here and I will tell as briefly as possible: I started from Syracuse with 17 men apparently able bodied and fit for soldiers, we were t have second class cars, but owing to some misunderstanding the conductor failed to furnish them consequently we had to ride in first class cars which of course was very agreeable; on the way to Binghampton my men amused themselves by singing John Brown and other songs to the delight of the white passengers in the car The Syracuse men conducted themselves throughout the journey in a decorous and gentlemanly manner giving me no trouble whatsoever, and I very often made the remark to the other men who came under my charge that I wished them to follow the example of the Syracuse men. I could trust them to get in and out of the car at pleasure without any fear of their deserting, a more earnest lot of men I do not believe are in camp. When we arrived at Binghampton we were met by a detachment of the Loguen guard and escorted to a colored church and there met the volunteers from Binghampton after a few minutes hand shaking we were invited by Mr Jones Mrs Brown and another lady whose name I have not to dinner, I and James Highgate taking dinner at Mr. Jones’ with Fra Logeren and Edmonia and Willella, after diner Mrs. Jones and myself took a walk ‘around town’ until time for us to leave, at which time we were escorted to the depot by the same detachment of the Loguen guard, where I met my brother, who had in charge six men, starting from home with nine men and losing three by the way. It is impossible for me to finish this letter as I wish as I must post the Regiment books immediately that is the order from the Adjutant. I shall embrace the next opportunity and write. Whatever I have said in a joke about your not loving me means nothing you are ever dear. I have enlisted for three years or duration of the war. I am thought a good deal of here I must close. Good Bye
Ever Lovingly
Lewis "[1]

"Binghampton" is, of course, Binghamton in the very southern tier of New York; and that six young men there named themselves the Loguen Guard testifies to their respect for Amelia's father.

Edmonia was sister to James Highgate. She and Lewis seem to have had some sort of romantic misunderstanding a few years earlier in which one had a crush on the other and one wrote a letter that was later regretted. All very innocent and sweet when seen in the context of later events. Edmonia later joined the American Missionary Association in Norfolk, Virginia, teaching freedpeople. Her time there briefly overlapped with Helen Pitts'. She has more of a story that perhaps should wait for another time.

Lewis's drawing of his stripes.

By the time Lewis wrote this letter, he had proved himself a natural leader and been elevated to the rank of sergeant major. The military would not allow black me to serve as officers. Lewis proudly described his uniform to Amelia, with particular detail given to his stripes. "My badge of offices is three stripes placed on my coat in the shape of half diamond, and three circular stripes rounding off from the diamond somewhat like this [he drew his badge here] on each sleeve, and a wide stripe down the leg," he told her. [2]

Amelia's little sister, Sarah, called "Aunt Tinnie," mistook the term as "servant of a major." "Wherever did she get such an idea?" wondered Lewis, then teased Amelia, "if I only had courted her all would have been right."[3]

Cpl. Charles Douglass, 1863

Training continued into May. "Our men are learning very fast," Lewis reported, "and are now quite proficient in the manual of arms, our evening dress parades all ready attract many many visitors." [4]Charles had not taken to command the way Lewis had. In true big brotherly fashion, Lewis observed that "he is a little green at first and has not learned yet to boss his men around, which is very necessary." (Little brothers often just learn to get out of the way, you know.) [3]

Then, Charles fell to the common ailment of army life, the sicknesses of camp. "I trust nothing serious," Lewis told Amelia, having only recovered from a "slight cold" himself. Charles on the other hand, "has a severe cold." His lingering illness and lovely penmanship (a boon to researchers) led to his assignment as a clerk at the rank of corporal. He proved very proficient. [4]

Their mother, Anna Douglass, and sister, Rosetta, arrived to watch the drills every day. They stayed with a black family that included the dramatic reader, Louise De Mortie. [5]Their father visited, too, and "was much pleased at [Lewis] looking so well compared with my visage when I was last home."[6]The training was all for a purpose. "Something tells me I will not be Killed," Lewis reassured Amelia, "though I may be wounded and that is not so bad you know, as it will be an honor."[7] Still, the thought lingered.

"We are soon to leave a week longer we may stay then we go to the south where I know not exactly Who will return? Selfishness I have always tried to avoid, but I hope I may return, and love the one who so dearly loves me, one whose love all the treasures of the earth cannot purchase from me, the love of your own dear self....Remember that if I fall that it is in the cause of humanity, that I am striking a blow for the welfare of the most abused and despised race on the face of the earth that in the solution of this strife rest the question of our elevation, or our degradation, our happiness or our misery....Think of me as aiding in the glorious work of bursting loose those chains which keeps the husband, wives, children, lovers, and friends, of millions of human beings to a level scarcely on footing with the brute. Think of the joy, the inexpressible joy to those millions, freed from such a foul system and then think that I threw in my mite to bring about that joy, that happiness, then rejoice yourself that you encouraged one you held dear to help bring about this bliss."[8]

Sgt. Maj. Lewis Douglass, 1863 
(note the stripes)

Amid fanfare, the 54th departed, marching down Beacon Street, past the State House, past the Boston Common of Revolutionary War gatherings, past the family home of their colonel, Robert Gould Shaw, where Frederick Douglass watched his oldest son head off to fulfill his mission. What strange mixture of pride and terror and helplessness and grief and love could he have felt? Anna and Rosetta, did they stay? The steel to face the loss of  another child.

Lewis, headed to action, with the men around him, had more immediate concerns. "We were six sea-sick days coming from Boston to Port Royal or Hilton Head," he told Amelia.

"Our steamer the “De Molay was tossed and pitched about by the waves like a play thing in the hands of a child, now away up up up, then down, down no on this side, now on that, frightening some while others had very serious expressions on their faces. To see the men huddled about on deck looking as though Death would be welcome visiter was sad enough, many wishing they never had gone for a soldier. I stood it first rate, I was sick only a half hour. Arriving at Beaufort S.C. the first man to whom I was introduced was Robert Small I there met Harriet Tubman who is a captain of a gang of men who pilot the Union forces into the enemy’s country. We staid in Beaufort four days and then came to this place. A week ago to day we went to Darien Georgia expecting to have a fight Darien lies on the Altamaha river about 8 miles from its mouth in going up the river our gunboats shelled the woods along the way, but could discover no enemy. We landed at Darien took some $100,00 north of different articles consisting of furniture which the Rebels had run away from a year ago and never came back after. We found two white women in the town and one white man the escaped the women we left after burning every building or shelter in the place to the ground I felt a little sympathy for feminines."[9]

Robert Smalls was the former slave who had liberated himself and others by appropriating the Confederate boat Planter and sailing to U.S. lines. Harriet Tubman needs no introduction. Lewis, of course, knew her from her forays through New York. The engagement that Lewis describes here, which took place on June 11th, was opposed by Col. Shaw, but ordered by Shaw's superior.

After Darien, the regiment moved to St. Helena Island for the remainder of June, then on to Folly Island and from there to James Island.  "On the upper end of James Island is a large rebel battery with eighteen gun," Lewis wrote to his parents. Battery Wagner protected the mouth of Charleston Harbor, approachable on land at low tide via a narrow strip of land. "After landing on James Island we threw out pickets within two miles of the rebs fortifications," he reported,

we were permitted to do this in peace until last Thursday the 16th inst. when about four in the morning the rebels made an attack on our pickets -- who were about two hundred strong -- with a force of nearly nine hundred men. Our men fought like tigers, one sergeant killing five men by shooting and bayonetting. The rebels were held in check by our front men long enough to allow the 10th Connecticut to escape being surrounded and captured for which they received the highest praise from all parties who knew of it. It earned us our reputations as a fighting regiment. Our loss was in killed wounded and missing 45.

As if that were not enough

That night we took according to our officers one of the hardest marches on record through woods and marsh. The rebels we defeated and drove back in the morning. They however were reinforced with 14000 men we having only a half dozen regiment, so it was necessary for us to escape. I cannot writ in full I am expecting every moment to be called into another fight. Suffice it to say we are now on Morris Island.

The march, through a rainstorm no less, took place from nine in the evening of the 16th until five in the morning on the 17th. They waited all day for transports to arrive to evacuate them back to Folly Island, where they arrived on the 18th. Then, they received their orders. Lewis wrote:

Saturday night we made the most desperate charge of the war on Fort Wagoner. Our loss in killed wounded and missing was 300. The splendid Fifty Fourth is cut to pieces, all of our officers with the exception of eight are either killed or wounded. Col. Shaw is a prisoner and wounded Major Hallowell is wounded in three places the Adjutant in two places. Serg't Simmons is killed Nat Hurley missing and a host of others. I had my sword sheath blown away while on the parapet of the fort. I have received the praise of the officers for coolness. The quartermaster says I have made my mark. The grape and cannister shell and Minie swept us down like chaff, still our men went on and on, and if we had been property supported we would have held the for. But the white troops could not be made to come up, the consequence is we had to fall back dodging shells and other missiles. If I have another opportunity I will write more fully. God bye to all. If I die tonight I will not die a coward. Good Bye Lewis.[10] 

To Amelia he wrote:

A shell would explode and clear a space of twenty feet. Our men would close up again, but it was no use we had to retreat, which was a very hazardous undertaking. How I got out of that fight alive I can not tell, but I am here. My Dear girl I hope again to see you I must bid you farewell should I be killed. Remember if I die I die in a good cause. I wish we had a hundred thousand colored troops we would put an end to this war.[11]

Col. Shaw, they did not yet know, had been killed in the charge and was buried in a mass grave with his men. Ned Hallowell recovered and assumed Shaw's command, returning with a vengeance.

All of the men served without pay, in protest for the lower wages that they received, from which the costs of their uniforms were also deducted.

Lewis and Amelia Douglass 
after the war.

Lewis Douglass sacrificed his descendants. He did not tell Amelia nor his parents that the blow that took away his sword and sheath left shrapnel in his groin. The wound festered. In August, he wrote to Amelia that hwe "suffering slightly from a pain in the head caused by the climate. I have thus far held out against the climate, but I now fear that I am going to be sick....My head aches so bad that I scarcely know what I am writing so you must excuse this disjointed scribble."[12] The infection grew so dire that he had to be evacuated to New York in September, where he was put under the care of his father's friend Dr. James McCune Smith. He did not recover enough to return to service, although he did join Louisa De Mortie's brother as a sutler. He and Amelia eventually married, but the nature of his wounds likely prevented them from having any children. He became the good uncle.

Charles later moved to the Massachusetts 55th Cavalry, which was dismounted, and served in South Carolina. He then worked for the Freedman's Bureau in Washington, D.C.

Frederick Douglass kept a Harper's engraving of the charge on Battery Wagner in his home, and you can still see it hanging there in the front hallway. A moment of pride, of terror, of courage, of sacrifice.

Many of the men who died at Battery Wagner, died in debt to the U.S. government for the clothes on their backs. While Massachusetts would have allowed them to vote, the majority of them came from further west where they could only vote if they owned $200 worth of property if they could vote at all. They fought in service to a nation that did not consider them citizens, thanks to the Dred Scott decision. They fought to prove their manhood, they fought to free slaves, they fought for freedom. 

They fought for an idea we have yet to realize. 

-----------------------
Sources:
[1] Lewis Douglass to Amelia Loguen, Camp Meigs, Readville, Massachusetts, 31 March 1863, Walter O. Evans Collection, Savannah, Ga. (private).
[2] Lewis Douglass to Amelia Loguen, Camp Meigs, Readville, Massachusetts, 8 April 1863, Addition 1, Frederick Douglass Papers, Library of Congress. (Start here.)
[3] Lewis Douglass to Amelia Loguen, Camp Meigs, Readville, Massachusetts, 15 April 1863, Walter O. Evans Collection, Savannah, Ga. (private).
[4] Lewis Douglass to Amelia Loguen, Camp Meigs, Readville, Massachusetts, 9 May 1863, Walter O. Evans Collection, Savannah, Ga. (private).
[5] Lewis Douglass to Amelia Loguen, Camp Meigs, Readville, Massachusetts, 15 April 1863, Walter O. Evans Collection, Savannah, Ga. (private).
[6] Lewis H. Douglass to Amelia Loguen, Camp Meigs, Readville, 20 May 1863, Walter O. Evans Collection, Savannah, Ga. (private).
[7] Lewis Douglass to Amelia Loguen, Camp Meigs, Readville, Massachusetts, 15 April 1863, Walter O. Evans Collection, Savannah, Ga. (private).
[8] Lewis Douglass to Amelia Loguen, Camp Meigs, Readville, Massachusetts, 20 May 1863, Walter O. Evans Collection, Savannah, Ga. (private).
[9] Lewis Douglass to Amelia Loguen, Camp Meigs, Readville, Massachusetts, 18 June 1863, Walter O. Evans Collection, Savannah, Ga. (private).
[10] Lewis Douglass to Frederick and Anna Douglass, Morris Island, SC, 20 July [1863], Addition 1, Frederick Douglass Papers, Library of Congress. (Start here.)
[11] Lewis Douglass to Amelia Loguen, Morris Island, SC, 20 July 1963, Carter G. Woodson Collection, Library of Congress. (Here.)
[12] Lewis Douglass to Amelia Loguen, Camp Meigs, Readville, Massachusetts, 15 August 1863, Walter O. Evans Collection, Savannah, Ga. (private).

For further reading: 
Douglas R. Egerton, Thunder at the Gates: The Black Civil War Regiments that Redeemed America (New York: Basic Books, 2016). -- This is a fantastic book that you will not be able to put down. I don't just say that because I am married to the author, either.