Who were the men of the 54th infantry regiment?
On Sunday, a Confederate flag appeared on a memorial commemorating black soldiers who fought in the Civil War.
It hung there, across the street from the Massachusetts State House, for a few hours before it was removed. (A student told Boston.com he hung it as part of a Confederate-flag burning to protest racism.)
The Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial honors one of the first documented African-American regiments formed in the North, which then-Massachusetts Gov. John Andrew instituted in 1863. The infantry’s actions in the war inspired the 1989 movie Glory.
According to the National Park Service, African Americans served in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, but they weren’t able to fight in the early years of the Civil War because of racist North American sentiments. President Abraham Lincoln changed this in 1863 with a clause in the Emancipation Proclamation that said African Americans could serve in volunteer regiments.
More than 1,000 men came from every region of the North — and some from as far away as the Caribbean — to be part of the regiment. The unit was led by Shaw, a 25-year-old Boston native, who came from a wealthy abolitionist family.
A wartime photo of Robert G. Shaw
The 54th regiment became famous after an attack on Fort Wagner in South Carolina in July 1863. The outpost was heavily fortified, but it would need to be taken if the Union forces wanted to secure their path to Charleston.
Shaw volunteered his men to lead the assault on Fort Wagner because he was eager to prove their worth in battle. Before the assault, a general pointed to the color bearer of the infantry and asked the troops, “If this man should fall, who will lift the flag and carry on?’’
According a Globe report from 1954, Shaw, who was standing to the side, took a cigar from his mouth and said quietly, “I will.’’
When the assault finally came, Shaw was one of the first to leap onto the fort’s parapet. His men reported seeing him wave his sword and yell, “forward, fifty-fourth’’ before he was shot in the heart.
His men fought for nearly an hour but couldn’t secure the fort. After the battle, a Confederate officer who was in the fort said the 54th fought gallantly and were led by “as brave a Colonel as ever lived,’’ according to the Globe report.
A sketch from the monument’s unveiling in 1897.
The bronze monument honoring the regiment was created by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who spent some of his youth in Boston. It took Saint-Gaudens 14 years to create the monument, which depicts Shaw leading the men down Beacon Street in May 1863 before they headed South to fight. It was unveiled in May 1897.
In its 118 years, the monument has been targeted by vandals on many occasions.
The most recent incident occurred in a week when it seemed the Confederate flag might become less visible in public spaces. In South Carolina, Gov. Nikki Haley called for the removal of the Confederate flag from the State House grounds in the wake of a racially motivated church shooting that left nine dead in Charleston. Georgia and Mississippi are considering redesigning their own state flags, portions of which include or are modeled after the Confederate battle flag.
Photos of the Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial
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