One Gallant Rush: Robert Gould Shaw and His Brave Black Regiment (1965) is a book by Peter Burchard, based on letters written by Robert Gould Shaw, white colonel of the first black regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War, the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. They were the first of what became the United States Colored Troops. Nearly 200,000 African Americans fought in the war.
The book was adapted for the film Glory, released in 1989 and starring Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman. The 54th established a standard of loyalty and heroism. The book was re-issued in 1990 as a tie-in to the movie, which won several Academy Awards and other recognition.
William Harvey Carney was an American soldier during the American Civil War. Born as a slave, he was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1900 for his gallantry in saving the regimental colors during the Battle of Fort Wagner in 1863. The action for which he received the Medal of Honor preceded that of any other African American Medal of Honor recipient; however, his medal was actually one of the last to be awarded for Civil War service. African Americans received the Medal of Honor as early as April 1865.
Darien is a city in and the county seat of McIntosh County, Georgia, United States. It lies on Georgia's coast at the mouth of the Altamaha River, approximately 50 miles south of Savannah, and is part of the Brunswick, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is the second oldest planned city in Georgia and was originally called New Inverness. The population of Darien was 1,975 at the 2010 census.
The 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that saw extensive service in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The unit was the second African-American regiment, following the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Regiment, organized in the northern states during the Civil War. Authorized by the Emancipation Proclamation, the regiment consisted of African-American enlisted men commanded by white officers.
Fort Wagner or Battery Wagner was a beachhead fortification on Morris Island, South Carolina, that covered the southern approach to Charleston Harbor. It was the site of two American Civil War battles in the campaign known as Operations Against the Defenses of Charleston in 1863, and it is considered the toughest beachhead defense constructed by the Confederate Army.
Robert Gould Shaw was an American officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Born into a prominent Boston abolitionist family, he accepted command of the first all-black regiment in the Northeast. Supporting the promised equal treatment for his troops, he encouraged the men to refuse their pay until it was equal to that of white troops' wage.
Edward "Ned" Needles Hallowell was an officer in the Union Army in the duration of the American Civil War, commanding the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry following the death of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw at the Second Battle of Fort Wagner in 1863.
Glory is a 1989 American historical war drama film directed by Edward Zwick about the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, one of the Union Army's earliest African-American regiments in the American Civil War. It stars Matthew Broderick as Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the regiment's commanding officer, and Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes, and Morgan Freeman as fictional members of the 54th. The screenplay by Kevin Jarre was based on the books Lay This Laurel (1973) by Lincoln Kirstein and One Gallant Rush (1965) by Peter Burchard and the personal letters of Shaw. The film depicts the soldiers of the 54th from the formation of their regiment to their heroic actions at the Second Battle of Fort Wagner.
George Luther Stearns was an American industrialist and merchant in Medford, Massachusetts, as well as an abolitionist and a noted recruiter of black soldiers for the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The Second Battle of Fort Wagner, also known as the Second Assault on Morris Island or the Battle of Fort Wagner, Morris Island, was fought on July 18, 1863, during the American Civil War. Union Army troops commanded by Brig. Gen. Quincy Gillmore launched an unsuccessful assault on the Confederate fortress of Fort Wagner, which protected Morris Island, south of Charleston Harbor. The battle came one week after the First Battle of Fort Wagner. Although a Confederate victory, the valor of the Black Union soldiers in the battle was hailed, which had long-term strategic benefits in encouraging more African-Americans to enlist allowing the Union to employ a manpower resource that the Confederacy dared not emulate for most of the war.
The Boston African American National Historic Site, in the heart of Boston, Massachusetts's Beacon Hill neighborhood, interprets 15 pre-Civil War structures relating to the history of Boston's 19th-century African-American community, connected by the Black Heritage Trail. These include the 1806 African Meeting House, the oldest standing black church in the United States.
Peter Burchard was an author, free-lance designer, and illustrator. He wrote the book One Gallant Rush (1965), about Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the first African-American unit in the Union Army. It was adapted for the 1989 film Glory, which won numerous awards.
Johnson Hagood was a planter, soldier and military officer in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, reaching the rank of brigadier general in the state militia and regular Confederate Army in 1862.
The Battle of Grimball's Landing took place in James Island, South Carolina, on 16 July 1863, during the American Civil War. It was a part of the campaign known as Operations Against the Defenses of Charleston.
First Sergeant Robert John Simmons was a Bermudian who served in the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War. He died in August 1863, as a result of wounds received in an attack on Fort Wagner, near Charleston, South Carolina.
Quincy Adams Shaw was a Boston Brahmin investor and business magnate who was the first president of Calumet and Hecla Mining Company.
The Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-Fourth Regiment is a bronze relief sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens opposite 24 Beacon Street, Boston. It depicts Colonel Robert Gould Shaw leading members of the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry as it marched down Beacon Street on May 28, 1863 to depart the city to fight in the South. The sculpture was unveiled on May 31, 1897. This is the first civic monument to pay homage to the heroism of African American soldiers.
Shaw Junior High School, now known as Asbury Dwellings, is an historic structure located in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It has been listed on the District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites and on the National Register of Historic Places since 2008.
Camp Andrew is a former American Civil War training camp that existed in 1861 in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. It was named for John A. Andrew, governor of Massachusetts at the time, and was used for the initial organization of the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry Regiment in May–July 1861. The site was on the former Brook Farm, a utopian community from 1841 through 1847. As a youth, Robert Gould Shaw was taken on visits to Brook Farm by his father. He is most famous as the commander of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. In his early military career he trained at Camp Andrew as an officer of the 2nd Massachusetts.
John Ritchie (1836–1919) was an American Union Army officer, traveler and diarist.
Joshua Bowen Smith (1813–1879) was an abolitionist, conductor on the Underground Railroad and co-founder of the New England Freedom Association, and politician, serving one term as a Massachusetts state legislator. He worked as a caterer in Boston, starting his own business at the age of 36.