On this day, the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment—the first Black regiment raised in the North—was officially mustered into federal service. Backed by abolitionists like Frederick Douglass and led by Col. Robert Gould Shaw, the 54th would become a symbol of courage and sacrifice.
Among those who answered the call was Alfred Whiting, a young waiter from Pennsylvania who enlisted just weeks earlier. He rose to the rank of sergeant and fought bravely at Fort Wagner, where he was captured and imprisoned. Whiting survived nearly two years in Confederate prison camps, only to die of illness months after his release. He is buried in Alexandria National Cemetery, a silent witness to the day Black soldiers formally entered the fight for freedom.
