SERGEANT ROBERT J. SIMMONS of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry collapsed with fatigue onto the sand of Morris Island, South Carolina. It was July 18, 1863, a date that would bring glory to his regiment, the first one made up of African Americans from the free states. Simmons and his men had fought their first brief but bloody battle on nearby James Island two days before. It had been intended merely to divert the attention of the Confederate troops from a Union buildup on Morris Island. The 54th Massachusetts had lost fourteen men killed and thirty wounded or missing in that first fight; then they had marched several miles through swamps by night and sand by day. Now they had crossed over to Morris Island, which guarded the entrance to the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. Exhausted from fighting and marching for two days without sleep, Simmons and his men took what rest they could while artillery and ships bombarded Fort Wagner.

Simmons did not know it, but three days earlier, his home in New York City had been burned by angry rioters, upset at being drafted to fight to free the slaves. They had taken out their anger on blacks living in the city, lynching and burning; Simmons's seven-year-old nephew had been killed by stones from the mob. But here, near Fort Wagner, Simmons wrote in a brief letter to his mother; “We are on the march to Fort Wagner, to storm it.” Soon Colonel Robert Gould Shaw roused his men – they were to lead the charge.