| The 54th Regiment
of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was the first African-American
regiment recruited in the North. Robert Gould Shaw, a twenty-six
year-old white officer from a prominent abolitionist Boston family,
volunteered for its command. The 54th became famous for leading
an unsuccessful assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina on July
18, 1863. In the hard-fought battle, the Regiment lost 250 soldiers,
including Shaw. The heroic charge, coupled with so many casualties,
made the regiment a houseshold name throughout the North and
helped spur black recruiting. In 1897, the Shaw Memorial, designed jointly by the sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and the architect, Charles McKim, was erected on Boston Common, across from the Massachusetts State House. Speeches at the dedication were delivered by Booker T. Washington, the president of Tuskegee University, and by the philosopher, William James. To learn more about the Memorial, you might read the fascinating discussion of its meaning by Kirk Savage in Chapter Six of his book, Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves: Race, War, and Monument in Nineteenth-Century America (Princeton, 1997). Better yet, go and see the memorial for yourself on the Boston Common, where it still stands. |
