A Memorial Day lesson in real patriotism from a Black Union soldier

Americans complain a great deal these days. We grumble about inflation, gasoline prices, political dysfunction, cultural turmoil, and the inconveniences that come with uncertain times. Some of those complaints are understandable. Life has grown harder for many. Yet Memorial Day calls us to pause and recall a desperately needed perspective.

There was a time in this nation when men endured not mere inconvenience but agony; not mere frustration but death, so that others might live free.

Among the most remarkable of these were Black soldiers who fought for the Union during the Civil War. Many had once been enslaved. Many had known the sting of the lash, the cruelty, and the humiliation of being treated as less than human. Yet these same men willingly marched into gun and cannon fire for a country that had not yet fully recognized their dignity.

They believed that America could become better than it was.

They fought not only for their own freedom but also for what Abraham Lincoln would later call “a new birth of freedom.”

One of those men was William H. Carney.

Born into slavery in Virginia, Carney escaped to the North and enlisted in the famed 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, one of the first official Black regiments organized by the Union Army. In July 1863, the regiment was ordered to assault Fort Wagner, a heavily fortified Confederate stronghold near Charleston, South Carolina.

The battle was nothing short of a slaughter.

Union soldiers were cut down by cannon and rifle fire as they advanced across the sand. Amid the chaos, the regiment’s flag bearer fell. The American flag began to fall toward the ground. Carney saw it happen.

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