Near this spot, in February 1863, a recruiting office opened to enlist men for the first black regiment authorized to fight for the Union cause. The men who volunteered here formed Company C of the 54th Regiment of Massachusetts. If captured, these recruits faced the prospect of execution or slavery. Yet by the end of the war more than 185,000 African Americans had volunteered for the Union Army and Navy. When the 54th marched through the streets of this town, citizens and soldiers lined the walks to get a look at the first black regiment from the North. Corporal James Henry Gooding wrote from Beaufort, South Carolina, on June 8, 1863, "We leave tonight for, the Lord knows where, but we shall try to uphold the honor of the Old Bay State wherever we go." Henry A. Monroe, a musician in Company C at age 14, was one of the youngest men to enlist; after his honorable discharge from the 54th, he taught in freedmen’s schools in Maryland and later became a minister. The Baptist minister William Jackson, a recruiter who acted as post chaplain to the 54th Regiment, was later appointed chaplain of the 55th Regiment and became the first chaplain of color in the Union Army. After President Lincoln’s order to recruit black soldiers, James W. Grace opened the recruiting office and visited local black churches to encourage enlistment.