Soon after the Emancipation Proclamation, abolitionists began to call for the creation of black regiments. The South, and most of the North responded with outrage. Meanwhile, Massachusetts, launched one of the greatest experiments in American history. In Thunder at the Gates, Douglas Egerton chronicles the formation and battlefield triumphs of the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Infantry and the 5th Cavalry--regiments led by whites but composed of black men