Editing Fort Wagner (section)

==54th Massachusetts==
{{Main|54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry}}

The best-known regiment that fought for the Union in the battle of Fort Wagner was the 54th Massachusetts, which was one of the first African-American regiments in the war. The 54th was controversial in the North, where many people supported the abolition of slavery but still treated African Americans as lesser or inferior to whites. Though some claimed blacks could not fight as well as whites, the actions of the 54th Massachusetts demonstrated once again the fallacy in that argument, as this was not the first time blacks ever fought in war or even for the United States.

[[William Harvey Carney|William Carney]], an African American and a sergeant with the 54th, is considered the first black recipient of the [[Medal of Honor]] for his actions at Fort Wagner in recovering and returning the unit's American flag to Union lines.<ref name=54th/> After the battle, the Confederates buried the regiment's commanding officer, Colonel Shaw, in an unmarked mass grave with the African-American soldiers of his regiment as an insult to him. Instead, his family considered it an honor that Shaw was buried with his men.

Morris Island is smaller than 1,000 acres and is subject to extensive erosion by storm and sea. Much of the site of Fort Wagner has been eroded away, including the place where the Union soldiers were buried. However, by the time that happened, the soldiers' remains were no longer there because soon after the end of the Civil War, the Army disinterred and reburied all the remains, including presumably those of Shaw, at the [[Beaufort National Cemetery]] in [[Beaufort, South Carolina]], where their gravestones were marked as "unknown".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/24185 |title=Robert Gould Shaw |last=Buescher |first=John |date=2010-08-08 |publisher=Teachinghistory.org |access-date=2017-10-08}}</ref>   The number missing presumed dead at Battery Wagner was 391, among the 10 regiments involved. 54th with the most at 146.  100 NY with 119, 48th NY with 112. The number of unknowns at Beaufort on their Civil War Monument 1870s is 174 unknowns.  These unknowns collected from three Southern states. Sites include East Florida, Millen and Lawton, Georgia and Hilton Head, South Carolina.  Two Confederate POW sites are included.  Given the missing at Morris Island is  more than double the total unknowns at Beaufort National Cemetery, it appears many bodies were not removed and were lost to the shifting sea and sands.