In what Civil War battle did the first African-American win the Congressional Medal of Honor?

African-American Sergeant William H. Carney won Congressional Medal of Honor for his courage in the charge of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteers on Fort Wagner in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, in July 1863.

The charge was unsuccessful, but the regiment’s bravery is commemorated by a monument at the Boston House of Commons.

The black regiment was led by white officer Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, killed with many others in the fighting.

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