On this day in 1863, the Union Army’s first Black combat unit began service

Jan. 31, 1863

The 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment — the Civil War’s first combat unit made up of Black soldiers that escaped slavery — officially began their service for the Union Army, even though they had already been fighting for months. 

Their commander, Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, wrote that the officers did not come “to teach lessons, but to receive them. There were more than 100 men in the ranks who had voluntarily met more dangers in their escape from slavery than any of my young captains had incurred in all their lives.” 

With the help of their scout, Harriet Tubman, the regiment conducted successful raids along the coasts of South Carolina, Florida and Georgia. Susie King Taylor, who had just run away from slavery at age 14, became their nurse. She later married one of the soldiers and was reportedly the only Black woman to publish a Civil War memoir. 

The regiment helped to capture Jacksonville, Florida, twice, first in March 1863 and later in February 1864. They also helped capture Charleston, South Carolina, serving as part of the city’s Union garrison. 

Higginson documented the courage of the soldiers: “Till the Blacks were armed, there was no guarantee of their freedom. It was their demeanor under arms that shamed the nation into recognizing them as men.”