The 54th regiment had barely any experience in the war because they were either known as runaway slaves or free black men. They didn't exactly have the right to fight in the war. The Union was known to defeat and had to come up with something to win the war, and so they made an army consisting of only black men. All of this was not only new to them, but to everyone else and the black men who volunteered to fight.
Compared to the white soldiers, the blacks were still able to act normal even after all the difficult times they've had to go through. Fighting alongside with the white army, the white army was by far more experienced due to most of them fighting more than once during the civil war. The white soilders were also treated