Richard G. Shaw

Transcription

Robert Gould Shaw was not an abolitionist; his parents were. When they arrange for him to be appointed a Colonel in command of the Massachusetts 54th, an all-black regiment, he wanted to refuse. But his mother said, "You would make a mockery of our lifes' work if you didn't lead this regiment." So Shaw took command of the regiment, which trained in Reedville, and in the spring of 1863 they marched up Beacon Street and then got on ships to go to Fort Wagner, South Carolina, to the coast of South Carolina, and in July 1863, Shaw and his men led the assault on the Confederate bastion at Fort Wagner. Shaw was killed along with a 180 of his men. Standing in front you see Master Sergeant William Carney; he saw the flag falling, he picked it up, put it under his coat as the men were retreating, crawled back to the Union lines, produced the flag, and said, "The dear old flag never touched the ground." That flag is still on display in the State house across the street, covered with Carney's blood. Shaw and his men were buried in a common grave; after the war there was talk of bringing his body back, but Shaw's parents said, "He belongs with his men." They commissioned Augustus St. Gaudens, the greatest American sculptor of the 19th century, to build this monument to their son and his man at the siege of Fort Wagner, and St. Gauden spent 16 years making this monument to Shaw and the men of the 54. In 1900 Master Sergeant Carney became the first African American to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. So the Shaw memorial, put here in 1897, Booker T. Washington spoke as did the president of Harvard; at its rededication a hundred years later, General Colin Powell spoke, and he talked about the inspiration of these men in the 54th in his career as an officer in the United States Army.