He must save the colors; he must save the colors. Throwing rifle aside, he grabbed the Stars and Stripes before they landed on the gritty crest. Time stopped as he raised the flag. As a monstrous rifle volley “melted away” the soldiers around him, he felt the heat of a lead ball careen through his thigh. Carney braced himself against the flag, ready to die while rallying his friends to take the fort.
Despite the danger around him, Sergeant William H. Carney of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment survived, holding the flag aloft for one whole half-hour on Fort Wagner’s parapet.
William Harvey Carney was born enslaved in Norfolk, Virginia on February 29th, 1840. While his mother Ann was freed by her owner upon his death, his father William Sr. remained enslaved to Sarah Twine of Old Point Comfort, Virginia. Twine promised to free her slaves in her will, but when she died in 1857, the High Sheriff took them all to the auction block.
