This record is a letter from Massachusetts Adjutant General William Schouler, informing the Chief Mustering and Disbursing Officer for Boston that he has been authorized to raise a regiment of Black recruits, to be designated the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers.
President Abraham Lincoln called for the raising of Black regiments following the Emancipation Proclamation, and Massachusetts Governor John A. Andrew, an abolitionist, quickly answered Lincoln’s call.
