One soldier of the Fifty-fourth wrote about unequal pay:

"A strange misapprehension exists as to the matter of pay, and it pains us deeply... Three times we have mustered for pay. Twice have we swallowed the insult offered us by the United States paymaster, contenting ourselves with a simple refusal to acknowledge ourselves different from other Massachusetts soldiers. Once, in the face of insult and intimidation such as no body of men and soldiers were ever subjected to before, we quietly refused and cotinued to do our duty. For four months we have been steadily working night and day under fire. And such work! Up to our knees in mud half the time, causing the tearing and wearing out of more than the volunteer's yearly allowance of clothing, denied the time to repair and wash... denied time to drill and perfect ourselves in soldierly qualities, denied the priviledge of burying our dead decently. All this we've borne patiently, waiting for justice.

"Imagine our surprise and disappointment on the receipt by the last mail of the Governor's address to the General Court, to find him making a proposition to them to pay this regiment the difference between what the United States Government offers us and what they are legally bound to pay us, which, in effect, advertises us to the world as holding out for money and not from principle, that we sink our manhood in consideration of a few more dollars. How has this come about? What false friend has been misrepresenting us to the Governor, to make him think that our necessities outweigh our self-respect?" (qtd. in McPherson 197-198)

Back to the 54th Regiment

Back to the outline