The "New York Tribune" in its summation of the Battle for Fort Wagner, reported, "It is not too much to say that if this Massachusetts 54th had faltered when its trial came two hundred thousand troops for whom it was the pioneer would never have been put into the field...But it did not falter. It made Fort Wagner such a name for the colored race as Bunker Hill has been for 90 years to the white Yankees."  The courage of the 54th and their now recognized commitment to patriotism, became a rallying point for 200,000 freed blacks who volunteered to fight on behalf of the North. Their presence on the battlefield, fighting and dying, gave impetus to the fight to eliminate slavery forever and guarantee the preservation of the Union.

A notice that appeared in "The Sidney Journal", May 20, 1864, encouraging Shelby County colored citizens to enlist in the 5th U.S. Colored Troops appealed to their patriotism, and support of the government. All soldiers now received equal pay.  Sidney or Shelby County has no record that Elias Artis or Hezekiah Stewart ever returned to their homes in Ohio, or that their war service bonus of $325 per man was ever paid.

Somewhere in this country, they may have young descendants who do not know what Shelby Countians know about their ancestors. Residents can see the names of all 325 Civil War dead cut in the polished marble of the Civil War Tablets housed on the ground floor of downtown Sidney’s Monumental Building. Constructed to honor its war heroes, the tablets were originally installed on the second floor of the structure.