3rd Regiment Heavy Artillery U.S. Colored Troops

[1] According to a 2003 article in the journal Army History, "More than 25,000 black artillerymen, recruited primarily from freed slaves in Confederate or border states, served in the Union Army during the Civil War...Federal military authorities armed and equipped the soldiers in these twelve-company heavy artillery regiments as infantrymen and ordinarily used them to man the larger caliber guns defending coastal and field fortifications located near cities and smaller population centers in Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, and North Carolina.

On July 18, 1863, the 54th Massachusetts, a black African American infantry led an attack on Forts Wagner and Greg.

While not a strategically important fort, the attack was intended to boost Northern Moralle and a hit to Southern, assuming the operation was successful.

At first, the 54th as well as nine other infantries were able to capture the fort before being driven out by Confederate forces, resulting in heavy casualties for the Union Army.

Expedition to Lake City, Fla. As part of the Union expedition to Florida, Brigadier General Truman Seymour led 5,500 men from Jacksonville deep into Florida, as he approached Lake City on February 20th, he met resistance from Brigadier General Joseph Finegan’s comparable Confederate force.