Boston's Monument to Historic Black Civil War Regiment

In recent decades, the city of Boston developed a reputation as a place unfriendly to minorities. That stain may be a remnant of the violent protests against the forced busing of students of white students to predominantly black schools during the 1970s. Or, it may be a vestige of the local sports scene, where the Boston Red Sox were the last Major League Baseball team to integrate black players. Either way, it belies a rich history in Boston of progressive attitudes and actions toward African Americans.

Boston was a hotbed of abolitionism during the mid-19^th century. In recognition of that era, the Museum of African American History is located on the city's Beacon Hill. It was the abolitionist movement that produced an honored figure in American history - Robert Gould Shaw. Today, Shaw and the regiment of black soldiers he led into battle during the Civil War are commemorated in a large bronze monument at the top of Beacon Hill.

Following President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, Governor John Andrews formed the 54^th Massachusetts Volunteer regiment. The first regiment in the Union Army made up of black men and freed slaves, the 54^th Massachusetts included African Americans from all over the North. Shaw, the son of a wealthy Boston family of fervent abolitionists, was chosen to command the regiment.

That summer, in an attack on Fort Wagner, South Carolina, 77 men from the 54^th Massachusetts were killed - including Shaw. The story of the regiment, and the man who led them, was later told in the motion picture "Glory," which featured Matthew Broderick as Shaw, and earned an Academy Award for Denzel Washington.

Back in Boston, money was raised by private donors for a memorial. Sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, a native of Boston who was educated at the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, was commissioned to produce the large bronze relief monument.

Saint-Gaudens spent 14 years working on the sculpture, which was unveiled in ceremonies held in 1897. In 1982, the names of 64 soldiers known to have died in the battle at Fort Wagner were inscribed on the back of the monument. It shows Shaw on horseback, surrounded by rows of his troops. Some 40 models were hired to pose over time in Saint-Gaudens' New York studio, and their faces represent those of the black soldiers honored in the massive bronze monument.

The scene depicts the 54^thMasschusetts as it marched south down Beacon Street on its way out of Boston in 1863. Today, the monument stands at the very crest of Beacon Hill, across from the front door of the Massachusetts State House. To look upon it now is to see what one might have seen at this exact place on the day that the honor-bound Shaw and his dedicated black troops marched past this spot.

The Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54^th Regiment Monument is part of the Boston African American National Historic Site, along with other nearby significant landmarks in black history. It is maintained and staffed by the National Park Service.