April 27, 2026

Episode 189 The Burning of Darien

27 minutes

One of the Civil War’s most controversial events unfolded on June 11, 1863, when Union forces entered Darien, Georgia, an undefended town of little strategic importance, and left it in flames. Homes, churches, businesses and one of the oldest Black congregations in the South were destroyed. The troops ordered to take part included the famed 54th Massachusetts, one of the first official Black regiments of the Civil War. But the story of who set the destruction in motion is more complicated than many people came to believe.

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Episode Sources

Burchard, Peter. “One Gallant Rush: Robert Gould Shaw and His Brave Black Regiment.” St. Martin’s Press, 1965.

Burchard, Peter. “We’ll Stand by the Union: Robert Gould Shaw and the Black 54th Massachusetts Regiment.” Facts on File, 1993.

Coulter, E.M. Writings on the burning of Darien, including his characterization of the destruction as a “barbaric act” and “wanton vandalism.”

Duncan, Russell, editor. “Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune: The Civil War Letters of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw.” University of Georgia Press, 1992.

Duncan, Russell. “Where Death and Glory Meet: Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Infantry.” University of Georgia Press, 1999.

Emilio, Luis F. “A Brave Black Regiment: History of the Fifty-Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 1863-1865.” Boston Book Co., 1894.

Francis Lieber, “Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field,” General Orders No. 100, April 24, 1863.

Georgia Historical Society historical marker, “The Burning of Darien,” erected in 2001.

Historical Marker Database, “The Burning of Darien,” marker transcription and location information.

King, Spencer Bidwell Jr. “Darien: The Death and Rebirth of a Southern Town.” Mercer University Press, 1981.

Levin, Kevin M. “James Montgomery, the Burning of Darien, and the Innocence of Robert Gould Shaw.” “Civil War Memory,” Oct. 23, 2023.

Levin, Kevin M. “Vindicating Col. Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th.” “Civil War Memory,” May 19, 2013.

Massachusetts Historical Society, “The Destruction of Darien, Georgia,” “The Beehive,” Oct. 25, 2017.

National Museum of African American History and Culture, “The Combahee Ferry Raid.”

National Museum of the United States Army, “Robert Gould Shaw.”

National Park Service, “54th Massachusetts Regiment.”

National Park Service, “Combahee River Ferry & Harriet Tubman Bridge.”

National Park Service, “We Called Ourselves Combee: Freeing the Enslaved People of the Combahee River.”

Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume XIV.

Shaw-Minturn family papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, including Robert Gould Shaw’s June 1863 letters describing the burning of Darien.

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Darien, Georgia, church history materials.

“Written in Glory: The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment,” entries related to June 1863, July 1863 and the burning of Darien.

Episode Music

Out of the Mines, courtesy of Ross Gentry, Asheville, North Carolina.

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By Shannon Ballard

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