The History of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment, basis for the film Glory

[CIVIL WAR]

EMILIO, LUIS F. History of the Fifty-Fourth Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 1863-1865. [A Brave Black Regiment.] Boston: Boston Book Company, 1891. First edition. Publisher's dark green cloth gilt lettered in gilt. 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches (22 x 14 cm); with 20 photographic plates and nine maps (two folding). A very fine and bright copy with only some offset and toning to endpapers and a slight lean, bookplate of Joseph J. McGuigan.

This scarce first edition offers the history of the Fifty-Fourth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first African-American regiment raised in the Civil War. The regiment included two of Frederick Douglass' sons and William Carney, the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor. The regiment is best known for its brave assault on Fort Wagner in July 1863 but saw heavy action throughout the war. Author Luis Emilio was a captain in the regiment under commander Colonel Robert Gould Shaw who was killed at Fort Wagner and as the highest-ranking surviving officer emerged from the battle as Acting Commander. The story of the regiment inspired the 1989 Oscar-winning film Glory. The book is rarely encountered in auction, particularly in such collectible condition as the present copy.
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