About the Artist

Augustus Saint-Gaudens  

Augustus Saint-Gaudens  1848 – 1907) was an American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts generation who embodied the ideals of the American Renaissance, Raised in New York City, he traveled to Europe for further training and artistic study, and then returned to New York, where he achieved major critical success for his monuments commemorating heroes of the American Civil War, many of which still stand. In addition to his works such as the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial on Boston Common, and the outstanding grand equestrian monuments to Civil War Generals, John A. Logan in Chicago's Grant Park, and William Tecumseh Sherman, at the corner of New York's Central Park.

His greatest achievement was the Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-Fourth Regiment, a bronze relief sculpture at 24 Beacon Street, Boston (at the edge of the Boston Common), depicting Col. Shaw and the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, marching down Beacon Street on May 28, 1863. It was unveiled May 31, 1897. The actual plaster cast is in Washington D.C. at the National Gallery of Art.

The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment was the first military unit consisting of black soldiers to be raised in the North during the Civil War. Prior to 1863, no concerted effort was made to recruit black troops as Union soldiers. The adoption of the Emancipation Proclamation in December of 1862 provided the impetus for the use of free black men as soldiers and, at a time when state governors were responsible for the raising of regiments for federal service, Massachusetts was the first to respond with the formation of the Fifty-fourth Regiment.

The formation of the regiment was a matter of controversy and public attention from its inception. Questions were raised as to the black man's ability to fight in the "white man's war." Although Massachusetts governor John A. Andrew believed that black men were capable of leadership, others felt that commissioning blacks as officers was simply too controversial; Andrew needed all the support he could get. The commissioned officers, then, were white and the enlisted men black. Any black officers up to the rank of lieutenant were non-commissioned and reached their positions by moving up through the ranks. On 28 May 1863, upon the presentation of the unit's colors by the governor and a parade through the streets of Boston, spectators lined the streets with the hopes of viewing this experimental unit. The regiment then departed Boston on the transport De Molay for the coast of South Carolina.

Recruiting and Enlisting Soldiers

By the middle of February 1863, recruiting for the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment was underway. Newspaper advertisements and recruiting posters (see below) encouraged black men to enlist. Twenty-five men responded promptly, and by the end of the first week of enlistments seventy-two recruits were present at Camp Meigs in Readville (now Hyde Park), Massachusetts. However, more soldiers were needed and recruiters turned their attention to states throughout the North and South and into Canada to locate enough eligible black men to fill the regiment. By 14 May 1863, the regiment was comprised of 1000 enlisted men, and a full complement of white officers. In May 1863, Captain John W. M. Appleton donated the Enlistment roll of Company A of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. The remaining recruits became the nucleus of the Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Infantry Regiment.

Fort Wagner

On 16 July 1863, serving as a diversion for the intended attack on Morris Island, South Carolina, the Fifty-fourth Regiment saw its first action on James Island, losing forty-five men. On 18 July, after several days with little sleep, food or water, the regiment was instructed to lead the attack against Fort Wagner on Morris Island (see an 1863 watercolor of Morris Island from Fort Wagner by Henry Webber). In the disastrous assault led by Colonel Shaw, the 54th suffered very heavy losses, most notably the loss of their commander, and nearly half of the men present were killed, wounded, or missing. Despite this, the unit showed exceptional bravery and honor, never retreating as they waited for the reinforcements which would never arrive.

While the Fifty-fourth Regiment suffered heavy losses at Fort Wagner, there is no evidence that the unit was chosen because they were thought of simply as cannon fodder. When the news of the attack reached home, the unit which had been the target of so much attention, publicity, and skepticism finally earned the respect it deserved. Despite the defeat at Fort Wagner, the use of black soldiers in the 54th was viewed as a success and opened the way for numerous other black units in the Union Army for the remainder of the war.

In 1989 a movie was made about the 54th Massachusetts Civil War Regiment,

Below are some images from that movie.

Illustrations Produced for Newspapers in 1863 Depicting the 54th Regiment Attacking Fort Wagner

Faces of 5 of the 54th Regiment

The Lost Sword of Captain Robert Gould Shaw Found

Col. Robert Gould Shaw was the commanding officer of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, the first all-black regiment to fight for the Union during the Civil War. The story is told in the 1989 film "Glory," with Matthew Broderick playing the role of Shaw.

Shaw led his men in a charge against the Confederates holding Fort Wagner in South Carolina on July 18, 1863. It was a deadly and ultimately unsuccessful assault. More than 70 enlisted men and three officers from the 54th, including Shaw, were killed. The Rebels held the fort.

When Shaw was killed, he was carrying a brand-new sword that had been specially made for him by the English sword maker Henry Wilkinson. "That was the Rolls-Royce of swords at the time," says Anne Bentley, a curator at the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston. "And it was a very, very expensive and very valuable gift, and anyone who depended on a sword in war wanted a Wilkinson sword, so it was a generous gift from his uncle."

Shaw had only received the sword a couple of weeks before the battle of Fort Wagner. He had written to his father, "a box of Uncle George's containing a beautiful English sword came all right."After Shaw fell, the sword was taken from his body. Bentley says a Confederate soldier probably sold it to an officer. But in 1865, a Union general named Charles Jackson Paine got word of it when he and his soldiers — some African-American — were camped near Goldsboro, North Carolina.

"Somebody came out of the house and asked if any of the black soldiers had been part of Shaw's regiment, because Shaw's sword was in a house in the neighborhood," Bentley says. So Paine sent some of his men to retrieve it. Eventually the sword was returned to the Shaw family. It then went to Shaw's sister, Susanna Shaw Minturn. "It was given to my father years ago, I think when he was a child, by his great-grandmother, Susanna Shaw Minturn," says Mary Wood Minturn. "My family never spoke about it. I never knew anything about it." At least she didn't until a couple of years ago, when she and other members of her family were cleaning out their parents' home north of Boston, before they sold it. They actually found several swords in the attic. But Wood says one of them stood out.

"So we looked at it a little more closely, and discovered that it was very nicely engraved with the American flag, and on the other side it had the initials 'R.G.S.,'" Wood says. "That's when we knew, 'This is a special sword.'"Needless to say they didn't put this sword out for the tag sale. But they did have to decide what to do with it. "Well first of all my daughter said it should be kept in the family, and I said, 'What part of the family? We're just a small section. It should be shared with the world. It should be on display, and the right thing to do is to donate it.' So that's what we did."

Now the sword is part of the collection at the Massachusetts Historical Society, where it's on display for the first time. Bentley says when she holds the sword, she feels it represents more than simply a weapon of war. It's a link to something bigger. "For me it's more the symbol that the sword is, rather than the object itself," Bentley says. "Because it represents not just Robert Gould Shaw, but it represents the aspirations, the dreams, the hopes and the sacrifices of all the men in the regiment."

The bravery displayed by the African-American soldiers from the Massachusetts 54th on July 18, 1863, was enough to convince Congress that African-Americans could be soldiers. So lawmakers authorized more black regiments, and by the end of the war more than 180,000 African-Americans had served. The 54th served with distinction until the end of the war.

President Lincoln credited the regiment, and the other African-Americans who fought for the Union, with helping win the Civil War.