Ship Island and the 2nd Louisiana Native Guards
Located ten miles off the coast of Mississippi, Ship Island, a unit of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, is home to Fort Massachusetts. Construction of this masonry fortification began in 1859 and was completed during the Civil War. From January of 1863 until October 1865, Fort Massachusetts was garrisoned by the 2nd Louisiana Native Guards (later re-designated the 74th Infantry, U.S. Colored Troops), a regiment of free men of color from New Orleans. Led for a time by a white Colonel, Nathan W. Daniels, the 2nd Louisiana Native Guards (along with their sister regiments, the 1st and 3rd Native Guards) were the first units in the Civil War to employ black officers of the line and at least one field grade officer - a Major Francis E. Dumas.
The 2nd Louisiana Native Guards saw action on April 9, 1863, (3 months before the more famous 54th Massachusetts Infantry made their assault on Fort Wagner), when units of the regiment raided Confederate positions at East Pascagoula. Soon afterward, Colonel Daniels was arrested on trivial charges and eventually forced to resign from the army. In his absence, all the black officers of the 2nd Louisiana Native Guards resigned or were replaced by whites. The unit finished its tour of duty guarding Confederate prisoners of war and maintaining their barren, windswept Ship Island post in a "defensible position."
Source:
Weaver, C.P. Thank God My Regiment an African One; The Civil War Diary of Colonel Nathan W. Daniels. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1998. |
