It was among the scores of units raised starting in the middle of the war to augment Federal troop strength by tapping into the large Southern population of former slaves.

[1] This operation was part of the Union strategy to damage the Confederate states' ability to supply food and materials towards their war effort.

Colonel W.W. Marple In January 1863, Col. James Montgomery of Kansas was authorized to raise a regiment of troops consisting entirely of free blacks and refugee former slaves, which were to serve under white officers.

In June 1863, Montgomery's brigade, including the 2nd South Carolina and the 54th Massachusetts Infantry under Col. Robert Gould Shaw, participated in operations along the Atlantic Coast resembling his earlier Jayhawking raids in Kansas and Missouri.

The regiment later helped loot and burn the coastal town of Darien, Georgia, despite the fact that it was undefended and offered no resistance.