This episode of the podcast contains explicit language.

Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in to episode 382 of our Civil War podcast. I'm Rich.

And I'm Tracy. Hello y'all. Welcome to the podcast. As y'all were recall, with the last

show we started to talk about the story of the 54th Massachusetts. At the end of the last episode,

it was May 1863 and the 54th was going off to war, sailing away from Boston and headed for

Port Royal South Carolina. The path that took the men of the 54th to South Carolina had been a long

one, born of idealism and fraught with difficulty. That they had succeeded in the face of bigotry and

doubt was due in equal measures to their own fierce resolve and to the determination of the

Colonel who led them. Despite his initial misgivings, 25-year-old Robert Gould Shah had assumed

the weighty responsibilities of commanding a regiment of black troops, and he never wavered in

his fervent resolve to show friend and foe alike that his men were the fighting equals of white

soldiers. However, once Shaw and the 54th arrived at Port Royal and reported for duty in the

Department of the South, reality set in when they were relegated to performing manual labor.

Not until June 8th, when the Bay Staters joined Colonel James Montgomery and the black troops of

his second South Carolina volunteers on an expedition to Georgia, did they see any action?

And that was a pointless raid on the small town of Darian. After plundering the hundred or so

residences, three churches, the Market House, Courthouse and a school, Montgomery ordered Darian

set a fire. Shah was appalled but reluctantly obeyed the order and directed one of his companies

to torch the town. The flames, fanned by high winds, eventually destroyed everything but

one of the churches and a few houses. Afterward, Shaw wrote to Lieutenant Colonel Charles Hallpine,

the acting-adjutant general of the department to condemn, quote, this barbarous sort of warfare,

end quote. Shaw knew his complaint could result in his arrest or even court martial,

...