Private Trip

Private Trip was a soldier of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment

Life
Trip was a runaway slave from Tennessee at the age of 12. He joined the 54th in 1863. Trip started the strike with payments, but was happy when Shaw then refused anybody's pay if the 54th refused theirs. He got off to a bad start with Thomas, saying that he and his squad should move up a road. He almost hit him, but Sergeant Major John Rawlins pulled him back. Trip fought in the Battle of St. James Island, where he killed several men with the butt of his rifle. When a man was about to bayonet him, Searles bayoneted the man, saving Trip's life. Later, Trip refused to take the Regimental Flag into battle after an offer by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. When he served at the Battle of Fort Wagner, he saw Shaw die, so he took up the Flag, and rallied the men to go into battle, but he was killed by a musket ball to the heart shortly after rallying the troops.