The Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts was established in early 1863 under the direction of colonel Robert Gould Shaw. Shaw was only twenty six years old when he was put in charge of the regiment. He came from a strong abolitionist family in Boston before the war. Before gaining his position as the colonel of the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts, Shaw served in the Seventh New York National guard and the Second Massachusetts infantry. In February 1863, Shaw was apointed by Massachusetts govoner John A. Andrew to lead the first all black Union regiment, the Fighting Fifty-Fourth, into the Civil War. President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1. Within weeks, on January