You say the defenders of the fort under fire saw attackers, not the race, when they opened fire on the forces before them, and you are right. Soldiers under fire become pragmatic not political.

The thing is, this is EXACTLY why THEY were sent against the fort in the first place. To show that they were MEN, and they could fight, and die, and be treated THE SAME as any other soldier as the 10's of thousands of men who had already fought and died before them.

You are EXACTLY right: It matters not what the intent of the burial party was. The burial party's intent had little lasting effect, if a message was indeed trying to be sent by them, because the message was lost by the more important meaning of the event.

The ultimate lasting effect of the sacrifice of the 54th was the same to large numbers of folks across the entire country north and south. They were finally seen as men, no different than any other soldiers, by folks at all levels of society. Once that principle was out of the box and made perfectly obvious to everyone of all persuasions, there was no turning back.

Once it became clear to all, that black or white made no real difference to the men who fought as soldiers on either side, the men defending the fort, or attacking the fort, a mighty huge barrier was shattered forever. The stone had been tossed irretrievably into the pond and the ripples may have moved slowly but they were eventually very very wide.

We are all better off for it.