Colonel Thomas W. Higginson was recuperating from a battle wound when he wrote this letter to his brother Stephen Higginson at Deerfield, Massachusetts, in October, 1863. An ardent abolitionist before the war, Thomas had been chosen the previous year to command the First South Carolina Volunteers, the first regiment of freed African Americans organized by the Union Army. Wounded in July 1863, Higginson took a month’s furlough and went home to recuperate. Eager to return to his regiment, he writes that he came back too quickly as he had not yet fully recovered. He shares news of the regiment and refers to another Black regiment, the 54th Massachusetts Regiment which had fought valiantly at Fort Wagner that summer and sustained many losses. The following winter, the 1st South Carolina became the 33rd United States Colored Troops, serving throughout the remainder of the war. Higginson’s injury would eventually cause his discharge from the army in October, 1864.
Higginson, Thomas Wentworth. Civil War letter from Thomas Wentworth Higginson to his brother Stephen. October 19, 1863. Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, American Centuries. https://staging.americancenturies.org/collection/l10-017/. Accessed on August 24, 2025.
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