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February:  Black History Month

  • By Admin
  • February 5, 2025
  • 76 Views

18 July 1863 – Sgt William Harvey Carney was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery while fighting for the Union cause as a member of the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry. But it wasn’t until May of 1900 that Carney actually received his award, and he was the first African American to receive the “Medal of Honor”. William Carney was born into slavery in Norfolk, VA in 1840. His family was eventually granted freedom and moved to Massachusetts, where he was looking to pursue a career with the church, but decided that he needed to serve for the Union and was attached to Company C of the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry. 

The 54th Massachusetts was formed in early 1863 and on 19 July 1863, the 54th volunteered to lead the assault on Fort Wagner, a highly fortified outpost on Morris Island that was part of the Confederate defense of Charleston Harbor. Struggling against a lethal barrage of cannon and rifle fire, the regiment fought their way to the top of the fort’s parapet. Sgt William Harvey Carney, seeing that the unit’s color guard was shot and going down, he scrambled to catch the falling flag and crawled with it up to the walls of Fort Wagner, where he, wounded, planted the US flag. The regiment’s white commander, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, was killed, and his soldiers were overwhelmed by the fort’s defenders and had to fall back. Despite his wound, Carney refused to retreat until he removed the flag and though successful, he was shot again. Now severely wounded and having endured a great loss of blood, he refused to release the flag until he received assistance, never once allowing it to touch the ground.

The 54th lost 281 of its 600 men in its brave attempt to take Fort Wagner, which throughout the war never fell by force of arms. Sgt. Carney eventually recovered and was discharged with disability on June 30, 1864, but it wasn’t until 1900, thirty-seven years later, that he was awarded the “Medal of Honor” for his extraordinary courage and sacrifice on that 19th day of July in 1863.

Carney passed in December of 1908, and is buried in the family plot at the Oak Grove cemetery in Bedford, Massachusetts. Engraved in his tombstone is an image of the “Medal of Honor”.

Photo: Sgt. William Harvey Carney

Photo Credit: Army.mil

Photo: Sgt. William Harvey Carney Tombstone

Photo Credit: NPGallery Asset Detail