Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth Infantry Regiment (Boston, Massachusetts)
Dublin Core
Title
Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth Infantry Regiment (Boston, Massachusetts)
Subject
Subject (Topic)
African Americans--History
Massachusetts--Boston
Public art
Public sculpture
United States Colored Troops
African Americans--History
Massachusetts--Boston
Public art
Public sculpture
United States Colored Troops
Subject (Name)
Shaw, Robert Gould, 1837-1863
Shaw, Robert Gould, 1837-1863
Subject (Object Type)
Commemorative sculpture
Commemorative sculpture
Description
The memorial commemorates Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and members of the Massachusetts 54th Volunteer Infantry Regiment, the first African American regiment to be formed in the North during the American Civil War. Shaw, the regiment’s leader, is shown on horseback in control of his horse and staring forward. Cast in bas relief, three rows of Black infantrymen of various ages stride forward in unison behind him. This scene depicts the Massachusetts 54th Regiment parade march down Beacon Street in Boston on May 28, 1863, as they left the city for Beaufort, South Carolina. On July 18, 1863, nearly 250 of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment were killed, wounded, or captured at the Battle of Fort Wagner located on Morris Island in Charleston Harbor including the death of Shaw. Sargeant William H. Carney received a Medal of Honor for his courageous actions during the fight, the first African American to receive the medal. The Massachusetts 54th Regiment and the Battle of Fort Wagner were the subject of the epic Civil War film, Glory (1989).
Creator
Saint-Gaudens, Augustus, 1848-1907
Source
Photograph: National Park Service
Date
May 31, 1897
Contributor
McKim, Mead & White (architectural pedestal); Shaw Family; Governor John Andrew; 1865 Memorial Committe: Charles Sumner, Rev. Leonard Grimes, Joshua Bowen Smith, Edward Atkinson, Robert E. Apthorp, Francis W. Bird, Charles W. Slack, Henry P. Kidder, Charles R. Codman, Henry W. Longfellow, James L. Little, William L. Clapp Jr., Charles Beck, William G. Weld, Royal E. Robbins, Edward W. Kingsley, George B. Loring, Alanson W. Beard, Solomon Stebbins, and Robert K. Darrah; 1876 Memorial Committee: Edward Atkinson, John Murray Forbes, Henry Lee Jr., and Martin P. Kennard
Rights
National Park Service, 1849 C Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20240, United States
Format
JPEG
Language
English
Type
Visual Arts-Sculpture
Coverage
Boston Common, Beacon and Park Streets, Boston, Massachusetts, 02133, United States
Has Part
Inscription on the relief:
Omnia Relinquit Servare Rempublicam
[He relinquished everything to save/preserve the Republic]
Omnia Relinquit Servare Rempublicam
[He relinquished everything to save/preserve the Republic]
Inscription on the pedestal:
Robert Gould Shaw
Colonel of the Fifty-Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts
Born in Boston 10 October MDCCCXXXVII
Killed While Leading the Assault on Fort Wagner
South Carolina 18 July MDCCCLXIII
Right in the van, on the red rampart's slippery swell
With heart that beat a charge he fell
Foeward as fits a man;
but the high soul burns on to light men's feet
where death for noble ends makes dying sweet.
[lines from James Russell Lowell's poem "Memoriae Positum"]
Robert Gould Shaw
Colonel of the Fifty-Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts
Born in Boston 10 October MDCCCXXXVII
Killed While Leading the Assault on Fort Wagner
South Carolina 18 July MDCCCLXIII
Right in the van, on the red rampart's slippery swell
With heart that beat a charge he fell
Foeward as fits a man;
but the high soul burns on to light men's feet
where death for noble ends makes dying sweet.
[lines from James Russell Lowell's poem "Memoriae Positum"]
Inscription on granite back between the two fasces:
To the Fifty-Fourth of Massachusetts Regiment Infantry
The White Officers taking life and honor in their hands cast in their lot with men of a despised race unproven in war and risked death as inciters of servile insurrection if taken prisoners besides encountering all the common perils of camp march and battle.
The Black rank and file volunteered when disaster clouded the Union Cause. Served without pay for eighteen months till given that of white troops. Faced threatened enslavement if captured. We're brave in action. Patient under heavy and dangerous labors. And cheerful amid hardships and privations.
Together they gave to the nation and the world undying proof that Americans of African descent possess the pride, courage and devotion of the patriot soldier. One hundred and eighty thousand such Americans enlisted under the Union Flag in MDCCCLXIII-MDCCCLXV.
[Charles W. Eliot, President, Harvard University]
To the Fifty-Fourth of Massachusetts Regiment Infantry
The White Officers taking life and honor in their hands cast in their lot with men of a despised race unproven in war and risked death as inciters of servile insurrection if taken prisoners besides encountering all the common perils of camp march and battle.
The Black rank and file volunteered when disaster clouded the Union Cause. Served without pay for eighteen months till given that of white troops. Faced threatened enslavement if captured. We're brave in action. Patient under heavy and dangerous labors. And cheerful amid hardships and privations.
Together they gave to the nation and the world undying proof that Americans of African descent possess the pride, courage and devotion of the patriot soldier. One hundred and eighty thousand such Americans enlisted under the Union Flag in MDCCCLXIII-MDCCCLXV.
[Charles W. Eliot, President, Harvard University]
Inscriptions on the back above the five laurel wreaths:
Cabot Jackson Russel, Captain • William Harris Simpkins, Captain • Edward Lewis Stevens, 1st Lieutenant • David Reid, 1st Lieutenant • Frederick Hedge Webster, 2nd Lieutenant
[Names of the five officers killed from the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts}
Cabot Jackson Russel, Captain • William Harris Simpkins, Captain • Edward Lewis Stevens, 1st Lieutenant • David Reid, 1st Lieutenant • Frederick Hedge Webster, 2nd Lieutenant
[Names of the five officers killed from the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts}
Inscription on back below the laurel wreaths:
I know not my commander where in all human history to any given thousand men in arms there has been committed a work at once so proud, so precious, so full of hope and glory as the work committed to you.
[Governor John Andrew, extract from speech given at the depart of the Fifty-Fourth Massachuestts Regiment in Boston 1863]
I know not my commander where in all human history to any given thousand men in arms there has been committed a work at once so proud, so precious, so full of hope and glory as the work committed to you.
[Governor John Andrew, extract from speech given at the depart of the Fifty-Fourth Massachuestts Regiment in Boston 1863]
Inscription on brick base at back:
The Memory of the Just is Blessed
Henry Albert • Thomas R. Ampey • Thomas Bowman • William Brady • Abraham Brown • James H. Buchanan • Henry F. Burghardt • Elisha Burkett • Jason Champin • Andrew Clark • Lewis Clark • Henry Craig • Albert Evans • William S. Everson • Samuel Ford • Richard M. Foster • Charles S. Gamrell • Lewis C. Green • John Hall • William Henry Harrison II • Edward Hines • Benjamin Hogan • Charles M. Holloway • George Jackson • James P. Johnson • John H. Johnson • Daniel A. Kelley • Henry King • Cyrus Krunkleton • Augustus Lewis • Thomas Lloyd • William Lloyd • Lewis J. Locard • Francis Lowe • Robert McJohnson • John Miller • James H. Mills • William H. Morris • Charles E. Nelson • Stephen Newton • Harrison Pierce • Cornelius Price • Thomas Peter Riggs • David R. Roper • Anthony Schenck • Thomas Sheldon • William J. Smith • Samuel Sufshay • John Tanner • William Thomas • Charles Van Allen • George Vanderpool • Cornelius Watson • Edward Williams • Franklin Willis • Joseph D. Wilson • William Wilson • John W. Winslow —Inscribed MCMLXXXII
[Names of those soldiers from the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Regiment who died during the assault on Fort Wagner. Names added in 1982.]
The Memory of the Just is Blessed
Henry Albert • Thomas R. Ampey • Thomas Bowman • William Brady • Abraham Brown • James H. Buchanan • Henry F. Burghardt • Elisha Burkett • Jason Champin • Andrew Clark • Lewis Clark • Henry Craig • Albert Evans • William S. Everson • Samuel Ford • Richard M. Foster • Charles S. Gamrell • Lewis C. Green • John Hall • William Henry Harrison II • Edward Hines • Benjamin Hogan • Charles M. Holloway • George Jackson • James P. Johnson • John H. Johnson • Daniel A. Kelley • Henry King • Cyrus Krunkleton • Augustus Lewis • Thomas Lloyd • William Lloyd • Lewis J. Locard • Francis Lowe • Robert McJohnson • John Miller • James H. Mills • William H. Morris • Charles E. Nelson • Stephen Newton • Harrison Pierce • Cornelius Price • Thomas Peter Riggs • David R. Roper • Anthony Schenck • Thomas Sheldon • William J. Smith • Samuel Sufshay • John Tanner • William Thomas • Charles Van Allen • George Vanderpool • Cornelius Watson • Edward Williams • Franklin Willis • Joseph D. Wilson • William Wilson • John W. Winslow —Inscribed MCMLXXXII
[Names of those soldiers from the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Regiment who died during the assault on Fort Wagner. Names added in 1982.]
Has Version
A gold patinated plaster cast (1900) is on view at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, on loan from the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, New Hampshire.
A bronze cast (1997) is on display at the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, New Hampshire.
A bronze cast (1997) is on display at the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, New Hampshire.
Extent
132 x 168 in. (335.28 x 426.72 cm)
Medium
Bronze; Milford pink granite
Bibliographic Citation
Greenough, Sarah and Nancy Anderson. Tell It With Pride: The 54th Massachusetts Regiment and Augusts Saint-Gaudens' Shaw Memorial. Yale University Press, 2013.
Alan Skerrett, Jr, ed. "Monuments to the United States Colored Troops (USCT) [African American Civil War Soldiers: The List." Jubilo! The Emancipation Century Blog, May 30, 2011. Accessed February 11, 2026. https://jubiloemancipationcentury.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/monuments-to-the-united-states-colored-troops-usct-the-list/.
Blight, David W. "The Shaw Memorial in the Landscape of Civil War Memory." In Hope & Glory: Essays on the Legacy of the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Regiment, eds. Martin H. Blatt, Thomas J. Brown, and Donald Yacovone, 79-93. University of Massachusetts Press, 2001.
Grover, Kathryn. To Heal the Wounded Nation's Life: African Americans and the Robert Gould Shaw/54th Regiment Memorial. Special History Study, Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park. National Park Service, 2021. Accessed February 11, 2026. https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/DownloadFile/668698.
Rights Holder
Renée Ater
Still Image Item Type Metadata
Original Format
Sculpture
Physical Dimensions
132 x 168 in. (335.28 x 426.72 cm)
Collection
Citation
Saint-Gaudens, Augustus, 1848-1907, “Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth Infantry Regiment (Boston, Massachusetts),” Contemporary Monuments to the Slave Past, accessed October 1, 2026, https://mail.slaverymonuments.org/items/show/1103.