Thoughts on Col. Robert Gould Shaw.

[major bill]

Colonel Robert Gould Shaw will be the topic of this month's Ann Arbor Civil War Round Table. Shaw became widely known to many Americans because of the movie Glory. What most Americans do not know is the man.

He started the War as a private. Became an officer. He saw a fair amount of combat and was wounded in battle twice. His command of the 54th Massachusetts and death at the Second Battle of Fort Wagner are what he is most remembered for. What else should I know before the Ann Arbor CWRT?

 

[rpkennedy]

Colonel Robert Gould Shaw will be the topic of this month's Ann Arbor Civil War Round Table. Shaw became widely known to many Americans because of the movie Glory. What most Americans do not know is the man.

He started the War as a private. Became an officer. He saw a fair amount of combat and was wounded in battle twice. His command of the 54th Massachusetts and death at the Second Battle of Fort Wagner are what he is most remembered for. What else should I know before the Ann Arbor CWRT?

His sister married Francis C. Barlow after the war.

He started the war as a member of the 7th New York State Militia and joined the 2nd Massachusetts as an officer before becoming the colonel of the 54th Massachusetts. He was kind of a rebellious kid who chafed against authority and it surprised his family when he joined the army.

Ryan

 

[Nathan Stuart]

He was kind of a rebellious kid who chafed against authority and it surprised his family when he joined the army.

After reviewing his personal history, thought Shaw possessed a restless spirit and was much influenced by his idealistic and intellectual family (who were also well-connected).

 

[Gary Morgan]

He was from a prominent Boston family (that means wealthy) with abolitionist leanings, unlike a lot of other Union officers who were indifferent to the plight of slaves. There is a passage in one of his letters to his mother that goes

"We fight for men and women whose poetry is not yet written but which will presently be as enviable and as renowned as any."

I love that sentence.

He was very well educated and briefly attended Harvard but withdrew. I am always surprised and delighted by the fact that he includes black women in why he was fighting, and expect that he had suffragist tendencies as well as abolitionist ones.

There is a bas relief sculpture of the 54th Mass Colored Regiment by St. Gaudens that you might want to use as an illustration. Lupaglupa, Civil War Gal and I are planning to visit a copy of it at the St Gaudens estate at some point this spring. Speaking of illustrations, you might want to use some Youtube clips from the movie in your powerpoint. As good a speaker as I am, moving pictures always seem to perk up my audiences.

 

[Pollaco]

Wasn't his sword recently recovered?

 

[Pollaco]

The 54th Massachusetts gets most of the credit for the assault on Battery Wagner but I think 2 other "white" brigades were also in on that charge.

 

[Johnny Shafto]

Wasn't his sword recently recovered?

Found this interesting article from 2017…

Famous Civil War Sword Belonging To Robert Gould Shaw Found In Attic

Shaw led the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, the first African-American regiment raised in the North, and died in battle in 1863.

www.wbur.org

 

[Gary Morgan]

The 54th Massachusetts gets most of the credit for the assault on Battery Wagner but I think 2 other "white" brigades were also in on that charge.

Yes, but the attacking forces had to cross a very narrow spit of land to reach Fort Wagner (which is no longer visitable, since the entire island was swallowed up by the sea). They sent the Mass 54th in first, and they took the brunt of the fighting. I am not even sure if the white regiments ever even reached the fort.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

Found this interesting article from 2017…

Famous Civil War Sword Belonging To Robert Gould Shaw Found In Attic

Shaw led the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, the first African-American regiment raised in the North, and died in battle in 1863.

www.wbur.org

That is quite an interesting story

 

[rpkennedy]

Yes, but the attacking forces had to cross a very narrow spit of land to reach Fort Wagner (which is no longer visitable, since the entire island was swallowed up by the sea). They sent the Mass 54th in first, and they took the brunt of the fighting. I am not even sure if the white regiments ever even reached the fort.

They did not.

Ryan

 

[major bill]

The presentation will be given by Kevin M. Levin, author of Searching for Black Confederates.

 

[Nathan Stuart]

Of particular note in reviewing Colonel Shaw's history is what happened to his body upon, and following, his death at Fort Wagner.

Shaw was shot and killed on the fort's parapets, while leading an assault by the 54th MA on this position. Unlike for other fallen Union officers, whose bodies were returned after the battle, the Confederate defenders buried Shaw (after robbing the body) with his soldiers in a common burial pit. This gesture, ordered by commanding Confederate General Johnson Hagood, was intended as a show of contempt for the white leader of a colored regiment. (The burial scene was briefly depicted at the end of the film 'Glory'). Despite attempts afterwards by the Union Army to recover Shaw's body for re-interment, Shaw's father directed that his body remain in the mass burial pit with his troops. In contrast to what the Confederates intended, Shaw's father viewed his son's burial together with his soldiers as a mark of honor and wrote in a letter to the regimental surgeon, …'We would not have his body removed from where it lies surrounded by his brave and devoted soldiers.'….

Shortly after the end of the war, the Union Army did disinter all the pit-buried remains, including Shaw. The remains were reburied at the Beaufort National Cemetery, in Beaufort, SC, where their gravestones were marked as 'unknown'.

 

[Library Lady]

If you find the presentation interesting @major bill , you might enjoy the book Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune which is a collection of Shaw's letters.

Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune

On the Boston Common stands one of the great Civil War memorials, a magnificent bronze sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. It depicts the black soldiers of ...

ugapress.org

 

[major bill]

If you find the presentation interesting @major bill , you might enjoy the book Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune which is a collection of Shaw's letters.

Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune

On the Boston Common stands one of the great Civil War memorials, a magnificent bronze sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. It depicts the black soldiers of ...

ugapress.org

Thank you for the suggestion, I might enjoy reading it.

 

[sjlempitski]

He was from a prominent Boston family (that means wealthy) with abolitionist leanings, unlike a lot of other Union officers who were indifferent to the plight of slaves. There is a passage in one of his letters to his mother that goes

"We fight for men and women whose poetry is not yet written but which will presently be as enviable and as renowned as any."

I love that sentence.

He was very well educated and briefly attended Harvard but withdrew. I am always surprised and delighted by the fact that he includes black women in why he was fighting, and expect that he had suffragist tendencies as well as abolitionist ones.

There is a bas relief sculpture of the 54th Mass Colored Regiment by St. Gaudens that you might want to use as an illustration. Lupaglupa, Civil War Gal and I are planning to visit a copy of it at the St Gaudens estate at some point this spring. Speaking of illustrations, you might want to use some Youtube clips from the movie in your powerpoint. As good a speaker as I am, moving pictures always seem to perk up my audiences.

View attachment 466408

This memorial is on the Boston Common, directly across from the State House

 

[Nathan Towne]

I believe that Kevin Levin is writing a biography on Shaw, but I don't much about it beyond it.

 

[ErnieMac]

A second sister, Josephine Shaw married Federal BG Charles Russell Lowell. Lowell was killed during the Battle of Cedar Creek in October 1864 about a year after their marriage.