Lot 1058

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Description:

THE "NEW YORK HERALD" REPORTS ON THE 54TH MASSSACHUSETTS AND THE BATTLE OF FORT WAGNER
Historic group of three Civil War newspapers, each 8pp. folio, the July 26, 27, and 28, 1863 editions of "The New York Herald". Each edition contains reporting on the July 18 Battle of Fort Wagner, and specifically the participation of the mostly African-American 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment and the death of its colonel, Robert Gould Shaw. From the July 26 edition: "The Furious Bombardment of Fort Wagner... Colonel Putnam and Colonel Shaw Killed ... " Quoting Confederate newspaper dispatches: "... Yesterday morning a force of our infantry and artillery surprised the enemy on James Island, and drove him to the protection of his gunboats, in Stono river. We captured fifteen of the Massachusetts negro regiment, and killed and wounded about fifty..." Further: "... The bombardment of Battery Wagner yesterday was terrific. Five Monitors, the [New] Ironsides seven wooden gunboats and two land batteries maintained a concentrated fire for eleven hours. At dark the enemy, numbering ten regiments, mad a determined assault on our works. After a desperate struggle, lasting until eleven o'clock P.M., they were repulsed with heavy loss... We captured over two hundred prisoners, including some black troops engaged in the assault..." The July 27 edition offers a much more detailed account from the union perspective, in small part: "... The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts (colored) found a place lower down, and charged bravely over the parapet, their officers urging them to distinguish themselves. But the rebels made a dash at them with all their bitter feelings against negro troops aroused, and neglected all else for a moment in attacking the negroes. They took some prisoners, slaughtered many, bayonets clashed, and muskets rattled, and the Massachusetts blacks got bewildered. They barely saved one of their flags, and the staff of another, and then, with thinned ranks, retreated through the showers of iron hail, leaving their colonel in the fort, many officers unaccounted for, and many black bodies, lifeless or disabled, along their track... Colonel Robert Shaw, of the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth, was wounded, taken prisoner, and said to be dead..." The July 28 edition makes no specific mention of the 54th, but does include a detailed map of Charleston, showing Fort Wagner and the trajectory of the bombardment by the Union monitors and shore batteries. All three papers show original folds, and have been disbound from a compilation, else very good.

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August 1, 2018 10:00 AM EDT
Chesapeake City, MD, US

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