Robert John Simmons
First Sergeant Robert John Simmons was a Bermudian who served in the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War.
He died in August 1863, as a result of wounds received in an attack on Fort Wagner, near Charleston, South Carolina.
The second-oldest surviving house in Charleston, Pink House, was built from Bermudian limestone in at some point between 1694 and 1712 (as Bermuda produced nothing but ships, its vessels often carried stone from the archipelago as ballast to be exchanged for cargo in continental ports, and Bermuda stone is found in other 17th Century properties in Charleston, including the McLeod Plantation on James Island).
In his book, The Negro in the American Rebellion, Brown wrote that "Francis George Shaw remarked at the time that Simmons would make a 'valuable soldier'.
What would become the headquarters, primary naval base, and dockyard of the North America and West Indies Squadron was established in the colony in 1795, leading to a rapidly growing British Army Bermuda Garrison tasked with protecting the naval base, and keeping the colony out of the hands of an enemy.
Without the assistance or funds of the colonial government, the Governor (who was also military Commander-in-Chief) and the Bermuda Garrison of the British Army employed many (mostly short-lived) schemes during the intervening decades to recruit Bermudians into the regular army and the Board of Ordnance Military Corps for part-time, local-service, to reinforce the regular soldiers.
Simmons probably served under one of these schemes, recruited into the regular army but for local service only, and would have been trained in light infantry tactics.
The regiment gained recognition on July 18, 1863, when it spearheaded an assault on Fort Wagner near Charleston, South Carolina.
A letter to his wife written by First Sergeant Simmons after the Battle of Grimball's Landing and shortly before the attack on Battery Wagner was published in the New York Tribune on 23 December 1863.
Poor good and brave Sergeant (Joseph D.) Wilson of his company [H], after killing four rebels with his bayonet, was shot through the head by the fifth one.
The General has complimented the Colonel on the galantry and bravery of his regiment.At roughly the same time as the events that First Sergeant Simmons described took place, his seven year old nephew was murdered in New York during the four days of race riots that followed the 13 July.
Although not mentioned by name in an article in the 28 July 1863 edition of the weekly Columbus Enquirer, he was described as a Bermudian sergeant, leaving no doubt as to his identity: One of the negroes is a remarkably sprightly fellow from Bermuda where he was educated as a soldier.
William H. Carney... Emilio also wrote: First Sergeant Simmons of Company B was the finest-looking soldier in the 54th Mass.--a brave man, and of good education.
The film starred Matthew Broderick as Shaw, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, Cary Elwes, and Andre Braugher.
The film re-established the now-popular image of the combat role African-Americans played in the Civil War, and the unit, often represented in historical battle reenactments, now has the nickname The Glory Regiment.
