Outdoor albumen CDV of Black soldiers at the Episcopal Church in Beaufort, South Carolina. Savannah, Georgia, Hilton Head and Beaufort, South Carolina: Cooley & Becket, ca 1863-1864. Photographers' imprint to verso. 

A war-time view of four Black soldiers outside a large tent set up in front of St. Helena's Episcopal Church in Beaufort, South Carolina. Established in 1712, the structure was rebuilt several times, with the most recent before the war in 1842. During the Union occupation of the South Carolina Sea Islands, the structure was used as a hospital. In addition to the four Black soldiers, two other African Americans in civilian clothes are visible, standing near the church.

Another copy is held in the "54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment photographs" at the Massachusetts Historical Society (Photo 72.96), a group of photographs that were collected by Captain Luis F. Emilio. He commanded Company E of the regiment and wrote the highly regarded regimental history  A Brave Black Regiment. The troops pictured are almost certainly members of the famed regiment. 

The 54th Massachusetts Infantry was organized in March 1863 by Robert Gould Shaw, the son of a notable Boston abolitionist. Composed primarily of free Northern blacks, including two sons of iconic abolitionist Frederick Douglass, the regiment carried the expectations of an enslaved race on their shoulders. Colonel Shaw (played by Matthew Broderick in Glory) was killed during the regiment’s historic charge at Battery Wagner in South Carolina and was buried in a mass grave with his fallen troops. Intended as an insult, it became an eternal honor.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Photography, Early Photography, Historic Photography, Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Tintypes, Cased Images, Union Cases, Albumen Photographs, CDVs, Carte de Visites, Cartes de Visite, Carte-de-visite, Cartes-de-visite, CDV, Cabinet Cards, Stereoviews, Stereocards] [African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation] [USCT, United States Colored Troops, Glory, 54th Massachusetts, Buffalo Soldiers, Black Soldiers]