Robert Gould Shaw Memorial

Last updated
Robert Gould Shaw Memorial
Robert Gould Shaw Memorial (36053).jpg
Artist Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Year1884 (1884)
Type Bronze
Dimensions3.4 m× 4.3 m(11 ft× 14 ft)
Location Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Coordinates 42°21′27″N71°3′48.6″W / 42.35750°N 71.063500°W / 42.35750; -71.063500
Owner National Park Service

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 (at the edge of the Boston Common). 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. [1] This is the first civic monument to pay homage to the heroism of African American soldiers. [2]

Contents

History

The monument marks Shaw's death on July 18, 1863 after he and his troops attacked Fort Wagner, one of two forts protecting the strategic Confederate port of Charleston, South Carolina. [2] Joshua Bowen Smith, a Massachusetts state legislator, led the effort to obtain authorization for the monument; others participating in its early planning included Governor John Albion Andrew, who had urged Shaw to take command of the 54th Regiment, Samuel Gridley Howe, and Senator Charles Sumner. [3] The monument was meant to show the public's gratitude to Shaw and commemorate the events that recognized the citizenship of Black men. [3]

The Robert Gould Shaw Memorial after the completed restoration project in 2021. Robert Gould Shaw Memorial 2021.jpg
The Robert Gould Shaw Memorial after the completed restoration project in 2021.

In celebrating Shaw, Saint-Gaudens depicted Shaw on horseback, while the Massachusetts 54th is depicted in bas-relief, thus creating a "stylistically unprecedented" and "hybrid" work that modifies the traditional Western equestrian monument. [2] Saint-Gaudens would later draw upon this new model in his 1903 memorial to William T. Sherman in New York's Central Park. [2] Each of the twenty-three Black soldiers is rendered with distinct, individualistic features that were based on those of live models hired by Saint-Gaudens. [2]

Fundraising for the monument, led by the survivors of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry and emancipated Black people from Beaufort, South Carolina, began immediately after the battle, but funds were redirected because the Beaufort site was found unsuitable and local white people expressed resentment. [2]

The monument was vandalized in 2012, 2015, and 2017. On May 31, 2020, as part of the 2020 George Floyd protests, the back of the monument was vandalized with phrases such as "Black Lives Matter", "ACAB," and "Fuck 12". As part of a renovation plan, the front had been covered with plywood, which also received graffiti. [4] [5] In July 2020, the monument became a focus of discussion during the iconoclasm that took place as part of the George Floyd protests. [6]

Restoration of the monument began on May 20, 2020, and was completed in March 2021. [7] The memorial was removed and taken to an offsite location for restoration. While the bronze sculpture was being cleaned and repaired, a new concrete foundation was built. The project cost $2.8 million and includes an augmented reality mobile app that assists visitors in experiencing the monument. [8] New signage was added detailing the history of the Civil War, the 54th Regiment, and the monument itself, with QR codes for the AR app. [9]

In November 2023, a copy of the monument in the National Gallery of Art was damaged by an activist. [10]

Dedications and inscriptions

Inscription on the back of the Memorial 54thMass.jpg
Inscription on the back of the Memorial

The work was dedicated by philosopher William James of Harvard:

There they march, warm-blooded champions of a better day for man. There on horseback among them, in his very habit as he lived, sits the blue-eyed child of fortune, upon whose happy youth every divinity had smiled.

Oration by William James at the exercises in the Boston Music Hall, May 31, 1897, upon the unveiling of the Shaw Monument. [11]

A Latin inscription on the relief reads OMNIA RELINQVIT / SERVARE REMPVBLICAM ("He left behind everything to save the Republic"). The pedestal below carries lines from James Russell Lowell's poem "Memoriae Positum":

Right in the van of 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.

On the rear are words by Charles W. Eliot, president of Harvard University:

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. Were 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. [1863-1865] [12]

Restored plaster cast at the National Gallery of Art Robert Gould Shaw Memorial - detail.jpg
Restored plaster cast at the National Gallery of Art

A plaster cast, which was exhibited at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, is displayed at the National Gallery of Art, [13] on loan by the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, Cornish, New Hampshire. [14] The inscription running along the bottom of this plaster cast incorrectly states that the assault on Fort Wagner and Shaw's death in 1863 occurred "JULY TWENTY THIRD," five days later than the historic events.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Harvey Carney</span> American soldier

William Harvey Carney was an American soldier during the American Civil War. Born enslaved, 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. Some African Americans received the Medal of Honor as early as April 1865.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment</span> African-American Union Army unit of the Civil War (1863–65)

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Wagner</span> Former fortification in South Carolina

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, in which United States forces took heavy casualties while trying to seize the fort.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Gould Shaw</span> Union Army officer (1837–1863)

Robert Gould Shaw was an American officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Born into a Boston upper class 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Needles Hallowell</span>

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.

<i>Glory</i> (1989 film) 1989 film directed by Edward Zwick

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Augustus Saint-Gaudens</span> American sculptor and engraver (1848–1907)

Augustus Saint-Gaudens was an Irish and American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts generation who embodied the ideals of the American Renaissance. Saint-Gaudens was born in Dublin to an Irish-French family, and raised in New York City. He traveled to Europe for further training and artistic study. After he returned to New York, he achieved major critical success for his monuments commemorating heroes of the American Civil War, many of which still stand. Saint-Gaudens created works such as the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial on Boston Common, Abraham Lincoln: The Man, and grand equestrian monuments to Civil War generals: General John Logan Memorial in Chicago's Grant Park and William Tecumseh Sherman at the corner of New York's Central Park. In addition, he created the popular historicist representation of The Puritan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Luther Stearns</span> American industrialist and merchant

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second Battle of Fort Wagner</span> Battle of 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 could not emulate for the remainder of the war.

<i>For the Union Dead</i> 1964 poetry collection by Robert Lowell

For the Union Dead is a book of poems by Robert Lowell that was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 1964. It was Lowell's sixth book.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caspar Crowninshield</span>

Caspar Crowninshield was a volunteer officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2nd Massachusetts Infantry Regiment</span> Military unit

The 2nd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Major George H. Gordon, a West Point graduate and veteran of the Mexican–American War, organized the unit's recruitment and formation. The 2nd Massachusetts was trained at Camp Andrew in West Roxbury, Massachusetts on the site of the former Transcendentalist utopian community, Brook Farm. Roughly half the regiment was mustered in on May 18, 1861 and the remainder on May 25, 1861 for a term of three years. The regiment saw extensive combat as part of the Army of the Potomac particularly during the Battle of Antietam and the Battle of Gettysburg.

<i>The Puritan</i> (statue) Bronze statue by Augustus St. Gaudens

The Puritan is a bronze statue by sculptor Augustus St. Gaudens in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States, which became so popular it was reproduced for over 20 other cities, museums, universities, and private collectors around the world, and later became an official symbol of the city, emblazoned on its municipal flag. Originally designed to be part of Stearns Square, since 1899 the statue has stood at the corner of Chestnut and State Street next to The Quadrangle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Ludwig Albert Pausch</span> Danish-American sculptor

Edward Ludwig Albert Pausch was a Danish-American sculptor noted for his war memorials.

Melzar Hunt Mosman was an American sculptor who made a number of Civil War and Spanish–American War monuments in Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors</span> War memorial in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.

All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors is a war memorial in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that honors the state's African American servicemen who fought in American conflicts from the American Revolutionary War to World War I. Commissioned by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1927, it was created by sculptor J. Otto Schweizer and dedicated July 7, 1934. In 1994 it was relocated from a remote site in West Fairmount Park to its present prominent site in Logan Square, along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joshua Bowen Smith</span>

Joshua Bowen Smith (1813–1879) was an abolitionist, conductor on the Underground Railroad, 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Lewis Mitchell</span> American politician (1829–1912)

Charles Lewis Mitchell was a printer, officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War, and state legislator in Massachusetts. Along with Edward G. Walker, Mitchell was one of the first two African Americans to serve in the Massachusetts General Court.

<i>Memory</i> (Dallin) Bronze sculpture by Cyrus E. Dallin

Memory (1924) is an 8-foot-tall bronze sculpture of a woman by Cyrus E. Dallin located in the Sherborn War Memorial in Sherborn, Massachusetts' Central Cemetery.

References

  1. "Robert Gould Shaw Memorial". History and Culture: Boston African American National Historic Site: Massachusetts. National Park Service. Archived from the original on May 4, 2016. Retrieved November 22, 2020..
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Dupré, Judith (2007). Monuments: America's History in Art and Memory. New York: Random House. pp. 80–85. ISBN   978-1-4000-6582-0. Archived from the original on 2023-02-25. Retrieved 2023-03-19.
  3. 1 2 The Monument to Robert Gould Shaw: Its Inception, Completion, and Unveiling . Cambridge: Houghton, Mifflin. 1897. Retrieved June 30, 2013.
  4. "Shaw 54th Regiment Memorial defaced during protests Archived 2020-06-05 at the Wayback Machine ," WCVB5, a Boston ABC News affiliate, 1 June 2020. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  5. "16 Statues And Memorials Were Damaged During Sunday's Protests, Including One Dedicated To African American Soldiers". www.wbur.org. Archived from the original on 2020-06-14. Retrieved 2020-06-14.
  6. "Boston's memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts 54th Regiment's black soldiers faces scrutiny in monument debate". MassLive. July 27, 2020. Archived from the original on July 29, 2020. Retrieved July 29, 2020..
  7. Sweeney, Emily; Andersen, Travis (March 3, 2021). "Civil War memorial to 54th Regiment returns to Boston Common". Boston Globe. Archived from the original on March 10, 2021. Retrieved March 20, 2021.
  8. Sweeney, Emily (2019-10-15). "Civil War memorial across from State House will be taken down for major face lift". The Boston Globe . Archived from the original on 2019-10-16. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  9. "Restoration Work on Shaw 54th Memorial Now Underway – Beacon Hill Times". beaconhilltimes.com. Archived from the original on 2020-06-14. Retrieved 2020-06-14.
  10. Ladden-Hall, Dan (7 February 2024). "Climate Activist Arrested Over Damage to Civil War Memorial Honoring Black Soldiers: DOJ". The Daily Beast. New York. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
    Lewis, Scott (7 February 2024). "Sandy man arrested for defacing African-American Civil War memorial as part of climate protest". KTVX. Utah. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  11. Boston City Council (1897). Exercises at the dedication of the monument to Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the Fifty-fourth regiment of the Massachusetts infantry (May 31, 1897). Boston: Municipal Printing Office.
  12. "Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw, (sculpture)". Save Outdoor Sculpture, Massachusetts survey. 1997. Archived from the original on September 27, 2013. Retrieved October 22, 2011.
  13. "NGA -- Shaw Memorial Home Page". Archived from the original on 2011-08-05. Retrieved 2011-10-24.
  14. "Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw, (sculpture)". Save Outdoor Sculpture, New Hampshire survey. 1993. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved October 22, 2011.
  15. Francis, J.; Glasheen, Adaline (1943). "Moody's "An Ode in Time of Hesitation"". College English. 5 (3): 121–129. doi:10.2307/371137. JSTOR   371137.