Alexander H. Johnson enlisted at the age of 16 as a drummer boy in the Massachusetts 54th Regiment. He has been noted as being the first Black musician to enlist during the Civil War, and referred to as being “the original drummer boy.” Johnson led the column of troops on the memorial honoring Robert Gould Shaw.

Johnson told an interviewer that he had “beat a drum every day he has been able since childhood.” Born Alexander Howard in New Bedford, he was separated from his parents before his fifth birthday. Orphaned and alone, his plight came to the attention of William Henry Johnson, an influential local Black man, who adopted him and raised him as his own child.

The skirmish, along the South Carolina coast near Charleston, occurred on July 16, 1863. Johnson noted, “We fought from 7 in the morning to 4:30 in the afternoon, and we succeeded in driving the enemy back. After the battle, we got a paper saying that if Fort Wagner was charged within a week it would be taken.”  Two days later the 54th stormed Confederate-held Fort Wagner on Morris Island. Johnson recounted, “Most of the way we were singing, Col. Shaw and I marching at the head of the regiment. It was getting dark when we crossed the bridge to Morris Island. It was about 6:30 o’clock when we got there. Col. Shaw ordered me to take a message back to the quartermaster at the wharf, who had charge of the commissary. I took the letter by the first boat, as ordered, and when I returned I found the regiment lying down, waiting for orders to charge. The order to charge was given at 7:30 o’clock.”