William Harvey Carney was an African American man of distinguished courage and bravery of the American Civil War and was a man before his time when he would receive the Congressional Medal of Honor for the heroic deeds that he did in the War. He would not receive the Medal of Honor until many years later. He would be honored for his heroic actions on rescuing the flag and placing it a certain way while fighting went on around him. He endured being shot many times in order to make sure the flag got where it needed to go.
William Harvey Carney came into this world on March 28, 1842, in Norfolk, Virginia, in a time that he was not a free black man. Some time in the future, he and his father would get away from being slaves by way of the Underground Railroad and head for the state of Massachusetts. William wanted to work in religion and would later take different employment opportunities so he would make money so he could keep up with his education. He would discover that there would be structuring of a black regiment called the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. He made up his mind that he was going to join so he could help those who needed it.
On July 18, 1863, he would be a part of the combat that took place on Fort Wagner. As the fighting continued, he noticed that the man who had been carrying the Union Flag, had been hurt, so he picked up the flag and fought his way to where the flag was supposed to be and made sure that the flag was seen. He took many bullets while doing this heroic act but he managed to survive. It would be one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War.
The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment was a unit that was before its time because it consisted of a all African Americans. There had been many who was against the structuring of this regiment since many held the belief that blacks would show fear and turn tail and run at the first opportunity when they were faced with fighting. The African Americans who were the ones who may be picked for the new regiment were not too sure of this either. Their fears were that the Southern officers would see them and try to either take them prisoner or destroy them anyway that they could. The regiment came about anyway and the African American troops showed that they had what it takes to fight.
William Carney, even though he was a hero for what he did, and would be honored with the Gilmore Medal, and also be honored with the Congressional Medal of Honor, he would not be given it for many years. It would be in 1864 that he would leave the army and head home. Carney would spend the rest of his life working for the postal service. He would leave the postal service in 1901 after being with them for many years. He also did many speeches at events for the military. It would be in 1900 that he would be officially given the Congressional Medal of Honor. He would pass away eight years later, on March 20, 1908, in Boston.
