to participate, in obedience to fanatical
orders from the head of the department, in the sack and burning of the
inoffensive little town of Darien on the Georgia coast. "I fear," he
writes to his wife, "that such actions will hurt the reputation of
black troops and of those connected with them. For myself I have gone
through the war so far without dishonor, and I do not like to
degenerate into a plunderer and a robber,--and the same applies to
every officer in my regiment. After going through the hard campaigning
and the hard fighting in Virginia, this makes me very much ashamed.
There are two courses only for me to pursue: to obey orders and say
nothing; or to refuse to go upon any more such expeditions, and be put
under arrest and probably court-martialled, which is a very serious
thing." Fortunately for Shaw, the general in command of that
department was almost immediately relieved.

Four weeks of camp life and discipline on the Sea Islands, and the
regiment had its baptism of fire. A small affair, but it proved the
men to be staunch. Shaw again writes to his wife: "You don't know what
a fortunate day this has been for me and for us all, excepting some
poor fellows who were killed and wounded. We have fought at last
alongside of white troops. Two hundred of my men on picket this
morning were attacked by five regiments of infantry, some cavalry, and
a battery of artillery. The Tenth Connecticut were on their left, and
say they would have had a bad time if the Fifty-fourth men had not
stood so well. The whole division was under arms in fifteen minutes,
and after coming up close in front of us, the enemy, finding us so
strong, fell back. . . . General Terry sent me word he was highly
gratified with the behavior of our men, and the officers and privates
of other regiments praise us very much. All this is very gratifying to
us personally, and a fine thing for the colored troops. I know this
will give you pleasure for it wipes out the remembrance of the Darien
affair, which you could not but grieve over, though we were innocent
participators."

The adjutant of the Fifty-fourth, who made report of this skirmish to
General Terry, well expresses the feelings of loneliness that still
prevailed in that command:--

"The general's favorite regiment," writes the adjutant,[2] "the
Twenty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry, one of the best that had so far
faced the rebel foe, largely officered by Boston men, was surroundi