Robert Gould Shaw

October 10, 1837, Robert Gould Shaw was born.
Shaw was born in Boston into one of the wealthiest families in the country.
As a young man, he was anti-slavery but never seemed to pick up the same zeal for abolition that his parents did saying “I don’t see how one man can do much against slavery."

But this did not stop him from taking command of the first all-Black regiment recruited in the loyal states, the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. Nor did it stop him from sacrificing himself in the sand of Morris Island while attacking Fort Wagner. He died on the parapet of the fort with his sword in hand and in front of his men.

He was buried with his men by the Confederates. White Southerners viewed this as an insult to Shaw. However, his parents refused a movement to bring him back to Boston to receive a hero’s burial saying “We would not have his body removed from where it lies surrounded by his brave & devoted soldiers…”

After the war the Union Army disinterred all Union graves on Morris Island, presumably including Col. Shaw. They were reinterred at the Beaufort National Cemetery under gravestones simply marked “Unknown.”

The performance of the regiment would do much to further the cause of freedom and equality for African Americans both in and out of the Army.

Photograph credit: Library of Congress