Not Historically Correct

Rating: 7/10 (20 June 2002)

As some readers and part-time historians would have you believe, the 54th was not the first black regiment assembled by the Federal government.
That "honor" belongs to the Louisiana Native Guard, which, incidentally, was the first black regiment formed by the Confederacy. This unit was never activated, and, eventually was committed to the Union side after the fall of New Orleans.
The second all black regiment formed to fight for the Union was the 72nd Negro Volunteer Infantry from South Carolina.
As for Robert Gould Shaw, he was like many high ranking Federal officers, a political "hack."