54th Infantry MA - History of the Fifty-fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 1863-1865. "A Brave Black Regiment".By Luis F. Emilio. 428p. illustrated. index. (1891) CWMA54IH The 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was the first African American regiment organized in the northern states during the Civil War. African Americans were not allowed to serve as soldiers in the Union Army until January 1, 1863. On that day the Emancipation Proclamation decreed that such persons [that is, African American men] of suitable condition, will be received into the