Today In Black History: Honoring Sergeant William Harvey Carney, Medal of Honor Awardee
He joined the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry and caught the flag at Fort Wagner before it hit the ground.
Sergeant William Harvey Carney in 1864
Issue #934 Today In Black History, Monday, September 29, 2025
William Harvey Carney: A Trailblazer of Courage
Born into slavery on February 29, 1840, in Norfolk, Virginia, William Harvey Carney and his family eventually escaped to freedom through the Underground Railroad, settling in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Soon after President Abraham Lincoln called for African American troops, Carney enlisted in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, one of the first official African American units in the United States Army.
On July 18, 1863, during the assault on Fort Wagner in South Carolina, the unit charged the fort under heavy fire, and the color bearer was shot. Demonstrating remarkable courage, Carney seized the American flag before it could touch the ground. Despite sustaining serious wounds, he resolutely pressed forward, uttering the words that would echo through history, “Boys, I only did my duty; the old flag never touched the ground.”
Sergeant Carney received an honorable discharge due to disability from his wounds in June 1864 and finally received his Medal of Honor on May 23, 1900, nearly 37 years after the events at Fort Wagner.
The 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment: Pioneers of Progress
The 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment was formed in March 1863 under the leadership of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. It was comprised mainly of free African American men, eager to prove their mettle in the fight for liberty and justice. The regiment’s valor in battle challenged widespread prejudices of the era and laid the groundwork for the eventual desegregation of the United States Armed Forces.
The assault on Fort Wagner, though unsuccessful in military terms, was a significant turning point in the Civil War. The courage displayed by the 54th Regiment under harsh circumstances garnered respect and recognition, influencing public opinion and furthering the cause for equal rights.
Colonel Robert Gould Shaw was the commander of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, one of the first all-Black regiments in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He and his family were prominent figures in the abolitionist movement. Colonel Shaw led his regiment with distinction until his death at age 25 during the assault on Fort Wagner in July 1863.
When his body was unceremoniously dumped in a mass grave with deceased African American soldiers by Confederate soldiers, his family stated that Colonel Shaw would be proud to be buried with his men.
This historic incident, in which “Old Glory” was saved from hitting the ground by William Carney, and the bravery of the 54th Massachusetts and Colonel Shaw, was beautifully captured in the 1989 award-winning movie “Glory,” which dramatized the formation and heroic actions of the 54th Regiment and Colonel Shaw.
Today In Black History
In 1760, the Williamsburg Bray School, the oldest building dedicated to the education of Black children in America, opened in Williamsburg, Virginia. Students learned the tenets of the Anglican Church and subjects including reading and, for girls, sewing. The Bray School’s deeply flawed purpose was to convince enslaved students to accept their circumstances as divinely ordained.
In 1784, the First African Lodge #459 was established with Prince Hall as its first Worshipful Master.
In 1910, the nonpartisan civil rights organization the National Urban League was founded in New York City by Dr. George Edmund Haynes, Eugene Kinckle Jones, and Ruth Standish Baldwin.
In 1918, Rev. Edward Thomas Dermby was elected Suffragan Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas.
In 1942, Hugh Mulzac, the first Black Captain of a U.S. merchant ship, the Booker T. Washington, launched from Wilmington, Delaware.
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy sent federal troops to integrate the University of Mississippi.
In 1975, the first Black-owned television station in the United States, WGPR-TV Detroit, began broadcasting.
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Denzel Washington plays a fictional version of him in "Glory." Aside from the fictional characters, the only thing really wrong in that movie is that the attack direction in the picture is north to south, whereas it was south to north. that was because the area where the battle was fought has been washed into the sea, along with Col. Robert Gould Shaw and his men who were tossed by traitors into a mass grave there.
Col. Shaw is distantly related to the man who played him, Matthew Broderick.