As bad as the human losses were, abolitionists, from Frederick Douglass to Harriet Beecher Stowe, took great heart at the heroic performance of the black soldiers. Never again could it be said that the African Americans were a childlike people, easily led. Never again could it be maintained that they did not know how to use weapons of war. The attack on Battery Wagner was a turning point in the war.

From that point on, it became relatively easy to fill the ranks of black regiments, and their numbers grew rapidly.