Robert Gould Shaw (1837-1863) - Find A Grave Memorial

Civil War Union Army Officer. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, the only son of Sarah Sturgis and Francis George Shaw, a wealthy merchant. He was educated in private academies in New York and Switzerland and by tutors in Europe. He returned to the United States to attend Harvard, but did not take a degree; instead he left school to work in his uncle's mercantile firm in New York. With the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted in the 7th New York State Militia as a Private. The unit served thirty days in defense of Washington, D.C. The following month, he joined the 2nd Massachusetts as a Second Lieutenant. He was offered a position on Brigadier General George Gordon's staff, which he accepted. He saw action in the Battles of Cedar Creek and Antietam, where he was wounded. He was promoted to Captain, and, in February 1863, his father, an ardent abolitionist, delivered to him Governor John Andrew's offer of command of the new Massachusetts 54th Regiment to be comprised of black troops. He refused the command, unsure he was "equal to the responsibility of such a position." Eventually, however, he was persuaded to change his mind and accepted. Promoted to Colonel in April 1863, he oversaw the recruitment and training of the 54th at Camp Meigs. Though originally skeptical about the fighting abilities of the regiment, his men's efforts and dedication impressed him. He married Anna Haggerty on May 2, 1863, and on May 28, the 54th marched south. They arrived in Hilton Head, South Carolina, on June 3rd and entered service in Major General David Hunter's Department of the South. The 54th took part in the attack on Darien, Georgia, but Shaw ordered his men to stand down when the town was ordered to be looted and burned over his objections. He wrote the Governor and the Adjutant General about the incident. Following his letters, Hunter was relieved and replaced with Major General Quincy Gillmore. On June 30, Shaw learned that his troops were to be paid less than white soldiers of the same rank; displeased, he suggested his men boycott their pay until the situation was resolved. On July 16, the 54th saw action on James Island when it distinguished itself in assisting to repulse a Confederate attack. General Gillmore's planned attack on Morris Island's Battery Wagner went ahead on July 18, 1863. The honor of the lead position in the assault was given to the 54th. Shaw signaled the advance. They came under Confederate fire, and, pushing forward, they took heavy losses. He led his men through the moat and up the wall. He reached the top and urged, "Forward 54th!" before being shot multiple times and killed. After a fierce battle, the Confederates succeeded in driving the Union troops out of Fort Wagner, leaving 246 Union dead. The action had proved the worth of Shaw's men and had infuriated the Confederates, who buried Shaw in a mass grave with his troops in a gesture of contempt. Shaw's father, however, discouraged later efforts to recover his son's body, writing, "We would not have his body removed from where it lies surrounded by his brave and devoted soldiers." Shortly after the end of the Civil War, the Army disinterred all the dead from Morris Island and reburied them at the Beaufort National Cemetery in Beaufort, South Carolina, where their graves were marked "unknown." The Shaw family installed a bronze tablet in his memory on a memorial cenotaph in their family plot at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston. A Second Memorial Cenotaph in his honor was erected in the Moravian Cemetery in New Dorp (Staten Island), New York. His name is also listed on the wall of the Memorial Transept of Memorial Hall at Harvard University, his alma mater. In 1897, the Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial, a bas-relief designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, was placed on Boston Common. The story of Shaw and the 54th, were shown in the 1989 film, Glory, which was based on the Peter Burchard book, One Gallant Rush. Shaw's collected letters were published in 1992 in Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune: The Civil War Letters of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw.