Hey everyone, welcome to episode number 381 of our Civil War podcast.

My name is Rich.

And I'm Tracy.

Hello y'all.

Thanks for tuning into the podcast.

A crowd of several thousand men, women and children lined the street in front of the

Massachusetts State House in Boston on May 28, 1863.

They gathered to honor and cheer another regiment from the Commonwealth before it departed

for the war.

However, this farewell was unlike any that had preceded it because this time with the

stride of each soldier's step, the onlookers witnessed history.

In front of them marched the 54th Massachusetts, the first African-American volunteer regiment

raised by a free northern state during the Civil War.

The onset of the Civil War in 1861 set off a rush of free black men to enlist in the

US military.

But a 1792 law barred, quote, persons of color from serving in the militia, end quote.

So strong opposition in the North, as well as widespread prejudice that blacks were intellectually

and socially inferior meant that their initial involvement was limited to tasks such as

driving supply wagons, bearing the battle dead and building railroads.

But public opinions slowly began changing.

Northern morale faltered after federal forces separate a series of military defeats and

fewer white men were willing to join the army.

...