Group of 2 documents from when Lt. John M. Deane (1840-1914) organized recruits and later escorted the 54th Massachusetts Infantry from Boston to Morris Island, South Carolina. Documents include:

List of Volunteers turned over to Lieut Dean. (Colored). Long Island, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, 8 December 1863. 2 page. Undersigned and docketed to verso. Lists 15 new recruits to the 54th Massachusetts Infantry who were attached to the command of Lieutenant Deane.

Autograph letter signed by Captain Benjamin Davis, as Assistant Provost Marshall, to Lt. Dean. Long Island, Boston Harbor, [Massachusetts], 16 December 1863. 1 page. Captain Davis, of the 22nd Massachusetts writes to Deane: "Private J. Cross complains that George Jarvis of your detachment - relieved from duty at this office yesterday - has taken his blankets and overcoat from his room in this house. Will you please to investigate this affair + if possible recover the same for Cross?"

John M. Deane (1840-1914) served throughout the war, initially with Company G, 3rd Massachusetts Infantry, known as the "Minute Men of '61". He re enlisted with the 29th Massachusetts Infantry on 1 June 1862 and saw frequent promotion, ending the war at the rank of major. Notably, he received the Medal of Honor for action on 25 March 1864 at Fort Stedman, Virginia, calling soldiers to man an abandoned gun under heavy fire.

These documents date from when Deane was detached and reported for temporary duty at Draft Rendezvous in Boston Harbor in September 1863. There he helped organize and process recruits, including the influx of Black soldiers. He escorted the famed 54th Massachusetts Infantry, the first Black regiment raised in the North, to South Carolina in January 1864. From there, the regiment took part in operations against Charleston, South Carolina, fighting at the Battle of Grimball's Landing and most famously the Second Battle of Fort Wagner. The bloody assault claimed the lives of nearly half the regiment, including those of commander Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and Captain Russell. Those who fell, white and Black, were buried together in a mass grave.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, African Americana, African American History, Slavery, Abolition, Enslavement, Emancipation, USCT, United States Colored Troops, Emancipation Proclamation, Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera]