History of Plimmoth Plantation, both volumes

William Bradford | 1650 or so | William Bradford

[mass55th]

One of my favorite songs is "I'm a Good Ol' Rebel." I've always had a lot of respect for Robert E. Lee. Most of the people who hate him, have no idea he served in the U.S. Army, was in charge of the unit that cornered John Brown at Harper's Ferry, fought in Mexico, and was the Superintendent of West Point. He was loyal to the United States, and I fully understand why he remained loyal to his State through it all. There was no finer General, and gentleman.

My screen name mass55th is from the 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment...the second black regiment authorized in the north during the war. Like her sister regiment, the 54th, they spent most of their service time in and around Charleston, South Carolina. I heavily researched both units, along with the white officers and enlisted men. Several of the blacks who served in both units had been slaves, and had to lie to take the oath once they received the same pay as the white enlisted men. Their letters tell how hard it was to swear they had been free men at the time they enlisted. I tracked down descendants of of the officers and enlisted men in both units, and they were kind enough to share whatever information they had. I met a lot of great people over the years.

Friends of mine who at the time lived on James Island, just across the bridge from Charleston were into Civil War preservation. They actually started The South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust. It had a different name in the beginning, and they eventually turned the Trust over to another group who renamed it, and expanded their preservation efforts to Revolutionary War sites. My friends were specifically interested in preserving Union and Confederate sites that had never been officially recognized or protected. The Trust is redoing their website and is currently under construction, but some of the sites my friends were able to get permanent protection for were the Confederate Forts Lamar and Pringle on James Island, the Union Swamp Angel Battery, and approximately three other Confederate Batteries on James Island.

When the war ended, the 55th was sent to Old Fort Jackson in Savannah, Georgia. From there, they were assigned to Columbia, S.C. until the unit was mustered out.

[SunkenCiv]