Speaker 1: Happy Saturday everyone. In our recent episodes about so journal Truth,
Speaker 1: we talked about her efforts to recruit black soldiers to
Speaker 1: fight for the Union during the U. S. Civil War.
Speaker 1: Those recruits generally became part of the fifty four Massachusetts
Speaker 1: Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and they included so Journal Truth's grandson
Speaker 1: as well as two of Frederick Douglas's sons. This is
Speaker 1: a subject our show has covered before. Our podcast on
Speaker 1: the Massachusetts fifty four is from bac in thanks to
Speaker 1: previous hosts Sarah and Deblina. Welcome to Stuff You Missed
Speaker 1: in History Class from how Stuff Works dot com. Hello,
Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Sarah Dowdy and I'm
Speaker 1: Deblina Chuck reporting, and probably for the first time since
Speaker 1: our three hundred episode, we're going to be talking about
Speaker 1: a subject that most of you might know better from
Speaker 1: the movie version. It's the Massachusetts Colored Infantry, and if
Speaker 1: you've seen the nineteen eight nine film Glory, you know
Speaker 1: that the story covers an all African American regiment in
Speaker 1: the Civil War and their white colonel Robert gould Shaw,
Speaker 1: who's played by a barely out of Ferris Bueller Matthew
Speaker 1: Broderick and despite required Hollywood tweaks and changed timelines, I mean,
Speaker 1: they've got a self tickets. After all. Glory is considered
Speaker 1: one of the best Civil War films, probably because it
Speaker 1: had Shelby Foote the author as its historical advisor, and
Speaker 1: a really well respected cast Roderick Morgan Freeman. A young
Speaker 1: Denzel Washington actually checked out the review of Glory in
Speaker 1: the New York Times Articles Archives, and they said he
Speaker 1: was clearly on his way to a major screen career. Indeed. Um,
Speaker 1: So we're of course going to be talking about some
Speaker 1: of the high points featured in the film Glory, the
Speaker 1: regiments parade through Boston, their pay refusal, their tragic battle
Speaker 1: at Fort Wagner. But we're also going to be talking
Speaker 1: about why the fifty four was so remarkable in the
Speaker 1: first place, and why it took until eighteen sixty three
Speaker 1: for a northern state to raise an all black regiment.
Speaker 1: That last fact is especially surprising when you consider African
Speaker 1: Americans fought in the Revolutionary War, So why in the
Speaker 1: Civil War when their liberty was again at stake, where
Speaker 1: blacks not initially allowed to fight. Well, when the war began,
Speaker 1: many free blacks wanted to join, but a seventeen ninety
Speaker 1: two law prevented them from doing so, And also Northerners
Speaker 1: as a whole weren't in favor of it. They believed
Speaker 1: African Americans were unsuitable soldiers, cowardly or unintelligent, and they
Speaker 1: thought that they weren't equipped to do anything beyond the
Speaker 1: hard labor work that was required for war, so grave digging,
Speaker 1: hauleen cooking, things like that. And if you listen to
Speaker 1: our episode on the Stone or Rebellion, and if you've
Speaker 1: heard of other revolts like Nat Turners, it's also easy
Speaker 1: to see that there was a fair amount of fear involved.
Speaker 1: It seemed a risk almost to outfit an armed black soldiers.
Speaker 1: But opinions did start to change over time, partly because
Speaker 1: the war dragged on longer than people had expected it too,
Speaker 1: and fewer white men were so gung ho to go
Speaker 1: enlist anymore. Also, abolitionists started to make promoting black service
Speaker 1: a prime wartime goal. Many saw it as the natural
Speaker 1: road toward full freedom, that you had to participate in
Speaker 1: earning that freedom by fighting, and one of the most
Speaker 1: famous abolitionists of the day, the former slave Frederick Douglas
Speaker 1: even said quote, once the black man gets upon his person,
Speaker 1: the brass letters us A must get on his shoulder
Speaker 1: and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on
Speaker 1: earth which can deny that he has earned the right
Speaker 1: to citizenship in the United States. Finally, though some Northern generals,
Speaker 1: not all saw enlisting African American troops as a way
Speaker 1: to win the war. To end the war, General Grant
Speaker 1: considered enlisting black troops as a definitive way to beat
Speaker 1: the Confederacy. I mean, it makes sense. Do you have
Speaker 1: this huge minority of the population with a very strong
Speaker 1: investment in the fight, So why not let them in
Speaker 1: and let them have a go at it. So by
Speaker 1: July eighteen sixty two, laws did start to change to
Speaker 1: allow more black participation. Congress first of all, repealed in
Speaker 1: sevento law barring blacks from service. They also passed the
Speaker 1: Confiscation Act, which made all slaves of rebel masters free
Speaker 1: as soon as they crossed Union lines. And they passed
Speaker 1: the Militia Act, which empowered the president to set up
Speaker 1: black militias. So within a month, the War Department had
Speaker 1: authorized Brigadier General Rufus Saxton, who controlled the Union occupied
Speaker 1: area of South Carolina to raise five black regiments with
Speaker 1: white officers, and the volunteering was sluggish at first, but
Speaker 1: by November the first South Carolina volunteer regiment was mustered
Speaker 1: under the command of a Massachusetts abolitionists named Colonel Thomas
Speaker 1: Wentworth Higginson. A second regiment it was then formed soon after,
Speaker 1: commanded by Colonel James Montgomery, and the first and the
Speaker 1: second Carolina regiments quickly proved their worth. They rated Georgia,
Speaker 1: Florida and even occupied Jacksonville, and similarly organized groups of
Speaker 1: soldiers were soon formed in Kansas and occupied areas of Louisiana,
Speaker 1: made up of freedmen and former slaves. So by full
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty two there were a few regiments of black
Speaker 1: soldiers in action, but so far none had been created
Speaker 1: by northern states. Still seemed like a black army was
Speaker 1: a ways off. One obstacle, of course, was the border states.
Speaker 1: President Lincoln had then quote to arm the Negroes would
Speaker 1: turn fifty thousand bayonets from the loyal border states against
Speaker 1: US that were for US. But the abolitionists really continued
Speaker 1: to press their cause, as did the realities of a
Speaker 1: long war you know, you've got to have enough soldiers
Speaker 1: to fight the thing. And finally, on January one, eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty three, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation into law. And
Speaker 1: the proclamation meant that Lincoln could not only remove resources
Speaker 1: from their conquered owners and laboring slaves from their conquered owners,
Speaker 1: he could use those freedmen to further his own wartime
Speaker 1: aims by turning them into soldiers. So African Americans could
Speaker 1: now enlist in the army and navy. And the way
Speaker 1: Lincoln put it to Grant really kind of sums the
Speaker 1: whole thing up. He said, it works doubly weakening the
Speaker 1: enemy and strengthening US. So Massachusetts seems like a natural
Speaker 1: place to form an all black state regiments since it
Speaker 1: had been the heart of the abolition movement for years.
Speaker 1: Massachusetts Governor John Andrew, who was an abolitionist himself, believed
Speaker 1: ardently that African Americans must play a part in ending
Speaker 1: Southern slavery. He really saw it as a moral issue,
Speaker 1: like if this happens without their participation, how can we
Speaker 1: all go on with that as a as the reality.
Speaker 1: That's why he petitioned Secretary of War and when Stanton
Speaker 1: for permission to form a state regiment, and was approved
Speaker 1: by the end of January, so it was officially on
Speaker 1: at that point. His first order of business was, of course,
Speaker 1: attracting soldiers. Massachusetts did not have a large African American
Speaker 1: population at this time, and according to William C. Casatus
Speaker 1: in American History, only one hundred men volunteered in those
Speaker 1: first six weeks. So that must have been a major
Speaker 1: blow to Andrew, who is so excited about the prospect
Speaker 1: of forming a regiment in his state. So he decided
Speaker 1: to expand his net go beyond Massachusetts, and with the
Speaker 1: help of other abolitionists, he raised five thousand dollars to
Speaker 1: set up these recruiting posts across the Northern States, trying
Speaker 1: to draw the cream of the crop in basically eventually
Speaker 1: attracting one thousand recruits. He soon had enough recruits to
Speaker 1: form not only a Massachusetts fifty four, but a Massachusetts
Speaker 1: fifty five too, and they was a pretty diverse bunch
Speaker 1: as you as you'd figure from these recruiting posts all
Speaker 1: over of the North. The fifty four featured men from
Speaker 1: twenty four different states, the District of Columbia, the West Indies,
Speaker 1: and Africa. Percent of them had been slaves, and some
Speaker 1: were pretty high profile guys too too. Of Frederick Douglas's sons,
Speaker 1: for instance, enlisted. It was, like I said, kind of
Speaker 1: the best of the best, we're attracted to this regiment.
Speaker 1: Governor Andrew also promised potential black recruits that this wasn't
Speaker 1: a setup and white officers wouldn't be against their own men.
Speaker 1: They'd be committed abolitionists with real war experience. I think
Speaker 1: the fear was that they would they would pair the
Speaker 1: black troops with somebody who either didn't care about them,
Speaker 1: you know it was racist, or somebody who just didn't
Speaker 1: know what he was doing, and that would certainly speak
Speaker 1: to how much you cared about your regiment if you
Speaker 1: put them with a poorly trained officer. Well. Governor Andrew's
Speaker 1: pick ended up being Captain Robert Gouldshaw, the twenty five
Speaker 1: year old son of abolitionist Francis and Sarah Shaw. And
Speaker 1: Shaw's father was an extremely wealthy former merchant from Boston
Speaker 1: who had retired early to West Roxbury for an academic
Speaker 1: life translating literature. And Shaw grew up attending top schools
Speaker 1: around New York and Europe and listening as a private
Speaker 1: when the war started, and fun loving and hard to
Speaker 1: discipline as he was, Shaw really thrived in the army,
Speaker 1: where he was eventually commissioned as a second lieutenant and
Speaker 1: finally a captain with the second Regiment of the Massachusetts Infantry.
Speaker 1: He saw action and was wounded twice, so he had
Speaker 1: abolitionist cred on one hand. He also had war experience
Speaker 1: on the other hand. And together, when you put those
Speaker 1: two together, he seemed like the perfect candidate to leave. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just the kind of guy that Governor Andrew was looking for.
Speaker 1: But when Shaw was offered the command delivered personally from
Speaker 1: the governor to Shaw's father, so he received this this
Speaker 1: offer from his own father, he didn't jump at the chance,
Speaker 1: and he had a few reasons for doing that. For
Speaker 1: one thing, he liked his current gig. He liked being
Speaker 1: a captain with the Massachusetts second secon He wasn't thrilled
Speaker 1: at the idea of what would undoubtedly be a very
Speaker 1: high profile, controversial, and likely unpopular job. You know, a
Speaker 1: lot of eyes would be on him. And then, most surprisingly,
Speaker 1: he wasn't really that much of an abolitionist. That had
Speaker 1: been a major point in his selection but his personal
Speaker 1: beliefs weren't as strong as those of his parents, and
Speaker 1: surely his friends must have known this. But to the
Speaker 1: wider world, his parents reputation basically made his own. They
Speaker 1: had joined the American Anti Slavery Society a year after
Speaker 1: he was born, and he had grown up playing with
Speaker 1: William Lloyd Garrison's kids. But Shaw himself, while anti slavery,
Speaker 1: he didn't see that as his prime motivation for fighting.
Speaker 1: He was more of a patriot. He felt upset that
Speaker 1: the North was being slighted. You know, it wasn't It
Speaker 1: wasn't about slavery for him, According to a Russell Duncan
Speaker 1: book on Shaw. In one eighteen fifty eight letter, Shaw
Speaker 1: actually wrote to his mother, quote, I don't talk and
Speaker 1: think slavery all the time. And it's likely that it
Speaker 1: was Shaw's mother who finally urged him to accept the offer,
Speaker 1: but his letter to his future wife, Annie Haggerty suggests
Speaker 1: that he also had glory on his mind as a motivator.
Speaker 1: He said, quote, you know how many eminent men consider
Speaker 1: a Negro army of the greatest importance to our country
Speaker 1: at this time? If it turns out to be so,
Speaker 1: how fully repaid the pioneers, and the movement will be
Speaker 1: for what they may have to go through. I feel
Speaker 1: convinced I shall never regret having taken this step, as
Speaker 1: far as I myself am concerned. For while I was undecided,
Speaker 1: I felt ashamed of myself, as if I were cowardly.
Speaker 1: So whatever his reasons, Shaw did ultimately accept the commission,
Speaker 1: and he was promoted to colonel and from mayor. He
Speaker 1: oversaw the training of his men at a camp near Boston.
Speaker 1: But one important thing to remember here all of the
Speaker 1: officers in the unit, not just Shaw. We're white, and
Speaker 1: many of them started working with pretty stereotypical views of
Speaker 1: their soldiers, and Shaw was certainly included in that. He
Speaker 1: would use racial names. When writing home to his parents,
Speaker 1: he'd express his surprise at how intelligent his men were,
Speaker 1: things that seem a little icky now when you read
Speaker 1: them today. But working together did eventually foster a sense
Speaker 1: of unity between the soldiers and the officers, especially since
Speaker 1: both of them, both the men and the officers, were
Speaker 1: under intense scrutiny from white soldiers. For instance, when the
Speaker 1: men who had been promised fair pay at recruitment were
Speaker 1: only offered ten dollars per month, which was three dollars
Speaker 1: less than white soldiers were paid. Shaw wrote to the
Speaker 1: governor vowing that the whole regiment, including him, would refuse
Speaker 1: payment until it was fair and equal. And we're going
Speaker 1: to talk about that pay question a little bit more later.
Speaker 1: It's kind of overshadowed by later events that go through,
Speaker 1: but it's one of their most important contributions to the war,
Speaker 1: and the bravery of both the men and the officers
Speaker 1: was also tested long before they even left the training grounds.
Speaker 1: Shortly after Muster, the Confederate Congress passed an act stating
Speaker 1: that any black soldier or white officer commanding black soldiers
Speaker 1: would be summarily executed if caught behind rebble lines. So
Speaker 1: that's something that's going to certainly strengthen the ties between
Speaker 1: the officers and the men themselves. So the development of
Speaker 1: the fifty four, though, as we said, was under intense scrutiny,
Speaker 1: but it was also kind of a spectator sport. Almost
Speaker 1: about three thousand people ended up visiting them to watch
Speaker 1: the training. Frederick Douglas stopped by, not too surprising if
Speaker 1: his sons were involved, but all sorts of people came
Speaker 1: back to watch their progress. People were interested in it,
Speaker 1: invested in it. But by May eighteen sixty three it
Speaker 1: was time for the men to to shift out to
Speaker 1: get going, and on the eighteenth Governor Andrew himself delivered
Speaker 1: the regimental flags to Shaw and they got their first assignment,
Speaker 1: which was going to be South Carolina. So unlike those earlier,
Speaker 1: earlier troops we mentioned that we're in Kansas or in Louisiana,
Speaker 1: they were going to really be in the thick of things.
Speaker 1: Their procession to the Boston Harbor included a march through
Speaker 1: downtown and review in front of the Governor before they
Speaker 1: bordered a ship bound for Port Royal Island, South Carolina,
Speaker 1: reporting to the Department of the South for duty. So
Speaker 1: what was going on in South Carolina at this time?
Speaker 1: There were attacks on Charleston's fortifications mostly but not for
Speaker 1: Shaw's men. They were met with the bitter disappointment of
Speaker 1: manual labor, which they what this was supposed to not
Speaker 1: be about. They showed up and they had to do
Speaker 1: some ditch digging. So it seems like they were back
Speaker 1: to square one. I go through all this training, all
Speaker 1: this pageantry, and just go back to digging ditches. So
Speaker 1: the fifty four didn't get to see any action until
Speaker 1: June eight, when they joined the troops of Colonel James
Speaker 1: Motto Murray and his All African American Second South Carolina Regiment.
Speaker 1: Even this, though their first taste of soldiering was pretty
Speaker 1: much a disappointment. Shaw and his men, under the command
Speaker 1: of Colonel Montgomery, were ordered to plunder and burn this
Speaker 1: tiny town in Georgia called Darien. It's a bit north
Speaker 1: of Brunswick, and Shawn was deeply disturbed with the order
Speaker 1: to burn down this defenseless, pretty unimportant town, and afterward
Speaker 1: wrote to his superiors about the incident, knowing that writing
Speaker 1: about it talking about it like this could mean disciplinary
Speaker 1: action for speaking up. Ultimately, though, the officer who commanded
Speaker 1: Montgomery to sack the town was not too long after
Speaker 1: relieved of his command by Lincoln, so maybe it was
Speaker 1: worth it for for Shaw to speak up. Finally, though,
Speaker 1: July six, the fifty four saw the type of action
Speaker 1: they had been hoping for all along, Not ditch digging,
Speaker 1: not burning down people's homes or businesses, but actual soldiering. Yeah.
Speaker 1: They joined white troops on James Island near Charleston, carrying
Speaker 1: themselves well and they ensured the safe retreat of the
Speaker 1: tenth Connecticut Infantry after surprise Confederate attack. One Connecticut soldier
Speaker 1: even wrote home to his mother that the fifty four
Speaker 1: had quote fault like heroes. So Shaw's brigade commander, General
Speaker 1: George C. Strong had heard about how well the men
Speaker 1: had done on James Island and asked Shaw if he
Speaker 1: lead an attack on Fort Wagner on Morris Island, one
Speaker 1: of the strategic defenses of Charleston's Harbor. So he was
Speaker 1: all for this. I mean, this was a great opportunity
Speaker 1: for then. Shaw had been angling for this assignment, and
Speaker 1: he and his men, as well as Strong, saw it
Speaker 1: as a great honor. Yeah, it was an honor to
Speaker 1: to lead the attack like this, but not everybody saw
Speaker 1: it that way. The division commander, Major General Truman Seymour
Speaker 1: only agreed to Strong's request because he saw the fifty
Speaker 1: four as disposable. So for him it was it was
Speaker 1: not a privilege to give these men the the honor
Speaker 1: of leading the attack against the war. They were just
Speaker 1: cannon fodder and he would just assume dispose of them first.
Speaker 1: The geography of Fort Wagner made the assault especially tricky,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna have to explain it a little bit
Speaker 1: for the attack itself to make sense. So from afar,
Speaker 1: the earthen work fort really looked kind of like sand hills.
Speaker 1: But inside there were one thousand, three hundred men from
Speaker 1: the North Carolina fifty one and thirty feet and some
Speaker 1: South Carolina artillery men. So it's very well defended. And
Speaker 1: since it was in the middle of a sandy peninsula,
Speaker 1: the fort was only open to direct assault on one side,
Speaker 1: which happened to be this tiny little sliver of sand
Speaker 1: that was between the surf and the marsh. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you've ever been to any of the sea islands,
Speaker 1: you can kind of imagine the terrain in the less
Speaker 1: developed areas. So this meant that the charge would have
Speaker 1: to be led in waves because they only have that
Speaker 1: tiny sliver of land to work on, and uh they
Speaker 1: could only fit a few men shouldered shoulder on the
Speaker 1: shore to run head. So all through the day on
Speaker 1: the Union artillery shelled Fort Wagner, you know, hoping to
Speaker 1: weaken the defenses a little bit. By early evening, Shaw
Speaker 1: and six hundred of his men had grouped themselves into
Speaker 1: two wings made of five companies, and they were using
Speaker 1: the surface their guide to the fort. But before the charge,
Speaker 1: Shaw told them the eyes of thousands will look on
Speaker 1: what you do tonight. He handed over his personal effects
Speaker 1: to a civilian he had made friends with um, knowing
Speaker 1: full well that he was probably not going to come
Speaker 1: back from this charge, but using his words for motivation,
Speaker 1: they built to a full sprint across the sand and
Speaker 1: made it all the way to the fort under heavy fire.
Speaker 1: Sergeant Major Lewis Douglas wrote that quote, not a man flinched,
Speaker 1: though it was a trying time. A shell would explode
Speaker 1: in clear space of twenty ft our men would close
Speaker 1: up again. Shaw led the charge until he was shot
Speaker 1: dead at the parapet. The flag bear staked the flag
Speaker 1: in the parapet, but the men only the fort for
Speaker 1: a short time before being forced to retreat, and some
Speaker 1: were shot by advancing friendly fire when they did so.
Speaker 1: Twenty three year old Sergeant William Carney, by this point
Speaker 1: shot in the head, chest, right arm and leg, grabbed
Speaker 1: the flag on his way out, delivering it back to
Speaker 1: the Union lines, and for this he became the first
Speaker 1: of twenty one black men during the war to win
Speaker 1: the medal of honor. Other men, of course, couldn't make
Speaker 1: that retreat and became prisoners. Maybe they were too wounded
Speaker 1: to be able to get out. Sergeant Robert J. Simmons,
Speaker 1: for instance, was shot in the arm, taken prisoner, and
Speaker 1: died later in a Charleston hospital. And if you've listened
Speaker 1: to our earlier episode on the New York Draft riots,
Speaker 1: this will really resonate with you. But when storming the fort,
Speaker 1: he hadn't known that only three days earlier, New York
Speaker 1: Draft riders had attacked his mother and sister there and
Speaker 1: beat his seven year old nephew to death. So one
Speaker 1: of the probably greatest tragedies of the later waves of
Speaker 1: soldiers couldn't hold the fort either, though, you know, it
Speaker 1: wasn't just the fifty four trying to trying to take
Speaker 1: it overall, one thousand, fifteen Union men were killed, wounded,
Speaker 1: or went missing, with two hundred and fifty six of
Speaker 1: them from the fifty four, which was the highest regimental
Speaker 1: casualty number among the participating regiments. Militarily, the mission was
Speaker 1: considered a failure. Area scouting had been subpar. That was
Speaker 1: one reason why the FOT hadn't been adequately weakened, and
Speaker 1: the men leading the charge of theft four had never
Speaker 1: practiced storming of forts. There were a lot of things
Speaker 1: working against like obvious flaw too. I mean that they
Speaker 1: were able to even make it now seemed surprising when
Speaker 1: you know that they haven't been able to practice that.
Speaker 1: But the discipline and the bravery of theft was duly noted.
Speaker 1: A month after the disaster, Grant wrote to Lincoln emphasizing
Speaker 1: how much he now supported the use of black troops,
Speaker 1: and according to a Michael J. Barhola article in Civil
Speaker 1: War Times, by December of that same year, sixty black
Speaker 1: regiments had been formed in the Union Army, and they
Speaker 1: weren't regiments of grave diggers or cooks or laborers, but
Speaker 1: regiments of soldiers. And by the war's end, about hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty thousand black men had fought. Ken Burns documentary
Speaker 1: on the Civil War includes an even more startling figure.
Speaker 1: Though Blacks made up less than one percent of the
Speaker 1: Northern population at the start of the war, by the
Speaker 1: end of the war they made up ten percent of
Speaker 1: the army. So what ultimately happened to the fifty four
Speaker 1: after that fateful battle, Well, this battle pretty much tore
Speaker 1: the regiment apart. It wouldn't fight in another major engagement again,
Speaker 1: and it took until March eighteen sixty five for Congress
Speaker 1: to finally order that the men, who had now been
Speaker 1: paid for eighteen months, to be compensated retroactively for their service.
Speaker 1: Shaw was buried with his men in a pit at
Speaker 1: the side of Fort Wagner as a sign of disrespect.
Speaker 1: But when his father learned where he was learned how
Speaker 1: he was buried, he said he was pleased that his
Speaker 1: son had been buried with his men on the field
Speaker 1: where he fell. He even prevented later attempts to relocate
Speaker 1: Shaw's body, and so with his family definitely assuring his
Speaker 1: legacy with acts like that, it's no surprise Shaw became
Speaker 1: kind of a martyred figure after the fact. And if
Speaker 1: you take a closer look at his letters, which contain,
Speaker 1: as historian Joan Wah puts it, racist and condescending language,
Speaker 1: you know it may have affected that reputation a little bit,
Speaker 1: but certainly not during the lifetime of his men. I
Speaker 1: think that's an important thing to consider. He wasn't um,
Speaker 1: he wasn't reduced in their eyes. It seems only two
Speaker 1: weeks after the attack on Fort Wagner, one of his
Speaker 1: sergeants had written quote, I still feel more eager for
Speaker 1: the struggle than I ever yet have, for I now
Speaker 1: wish to have revenge for our gallant colonel and the
Speaker 1: spilt blood of our captain. We expect plant the stars
Speaker 1: and strikes on the city of Charleston. Veterans of the
Speaker 1: fifty four quickly began raising money for their colonel's memorial,
Speaker 1: hoping to build something on Morris Island. They instead wound
Speaker 1: up sponsoring a school for emancipated children in South Carolina,
Speaker 1: which was named for Shaw, while Boston abolitionists raised money
Speaker 1: for a monument in their city. By eighteen eighty four,
Speaker 1: the commission was given to Augusta St. Gaden's, who was
Speaker 1: the biggest American sculptor of that day, and he finished
Speaker 1: his work in eighteen ninety seven. But while some have
Speaker 1: criticized St. Goden's for elevating Shaw above his men on
Speaker 1: horseback and for modeling the black soldiers from live subjects
Speaker 1: instead of old photos, it's generally considered a brilliant memorial.
Speaker 1: Alison Luke's, who's the curator of Sculpture at the National
Speaker 1: Gallery of Art calls it quote a knockout. The name St.
Speaker 1: Goden's might ring a bell for some of you guys
Speaker 1: to we mentioned him, or rather uh David McCullum mentioned
Speaker 1: him a bit and our interview with him last year.
Speaker 1: Another random side note to Shaw isn't the only family
Speaker 1: member with a memorial. His sister Josephine Shaw Lowell, who
Speaker 1: was a social reformer, was the first woman to earn
Speaker 1: a public memorial in New York City. So there you go. Um.
Speaker 1: I thought a lot about this story, and in a
Speaker 1: way it is heroic and I can definitely see the
Speaker 1: outcome is positive that African Americans are able to fight
Speaker 1: when they want to. But the story really kind of
Speaker 1: bothered me in a way too. It took such an
Speaker 1: epic failure to catch people's attention and change minds, and
Speaker 1: that that disturbed me that it took so much, and
Speaker 1: the little the other things, the fact that they didn't
Speaker 1: get paid. I mean, there's a lot that doesn't quite
Speaker 1: sit right. And I think about all the details of
Speaker 1: the story well. And another thing to consider, two black
Speaker 1: soldiers had already fought admirably at Port Hudson and Milliken's
Speaker 1: Bend by this point, but neither event really received much coverage,
Speaker 1: so it's almost like it took something this horrible, this
Speaker 1: disastrous to catch people's attention, and and yeah, that does
Speaker 1: bother me. And I think if you want to learn
Speaker 1: a little bit more about the plight or life, depending
Speaker 1: on how you look at it, of a black soldier,
Speaker 1: there's some great resources that the National Park Service has online,
Speaker 1: really fantastic accounts of the history of African Americans in
Speaker 1: the military in the Civil War. Another resource I might
Speaker 1: recommend is the Massachusetts Historical Society. They have portraits of
Speaker 1: many of the men of the fifty four, and I
Speaker 1: think one criticism of the story sometimes is that you
Speaker 1: have Shaw, He's a well defined figure and very much
Speaker 1: tied up with the regiment, but it's harder to get
Speaker 1: as detailed personal stories from many of the men of
Speaker 1: the regiment. It is, after all, a company of men,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's a large group of people. But
Speaker 1: the Massachusetts historicals that society does have portraits, you know,
Speaker 1: portraits of the little drummer boys and stuff, who look
Speaker 1: like they're in their very early teens at the oldest.
Speaker 1: And I think for me that helped put a little
Speaker 1: personality behind the men of the regiment and not just Shaw. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's good to know. That's one thing I thought of
Speaker 1: too while going through this is that although we did
Speaker 1: have a couple of quotes in here from soldiers, but
Speaker 1: it would have been nice to know a little bit
Speaker 1: more about the individuals who thought. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for joining us on this Saturday. If you have heard
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