ith whom the topic already had been discussed. Pro-abolitionist Governor John A. Andrew of Massachusetts executed his plan to form a black volunteer regiment. Recruitment for the Fifty-fourth began in February 1863. " 'It will be the first Colored Regiment to be raised in the free states,' wrote Andrew to Robert Gould Shaw's father. 'Its success or failure will go far to elevate or depress the estimation in which the character of the colored Americans will be held throughout the world'."(McPherson 73). For officers, Andrew wanted "young me
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