Robert Gould Shaw

Robert Gould Shaw

Robert Gould Shaw (born October 10, 1837 in Boston , Massachusetts , † July 18, 1863 at Fort Wagner , South Carolina ) was an officer in the Union Army in the American Civil War .

Life

Childhood and youth

He was the second child and the only son of the rich abolitionist family of Francis George and Sarah Blake (Sturgis) Shaw. Even in his earliest youth, Shaw came into contact with the circle of Ralph Waldo Emerson , the transcendentalists , through his father's influential contacts . He was also raised in the spirit of Christianity and abolitionism . The young Shaw was sent to Europe by his parents to get to know the local culture and languages. Among other things, he attended a boarding school in Switzerland , where he learned mathematics and various languages and practiced the violin and piano .

Military career

After returning from Europe and studying at Harvard , he volunteered for the 7th New York National Guard, a regiment to which only sons from rich and influential New York circles belonged, and saw the outbreak of the American Civil War in this regiment. On May 10, 1861, Shaw accepted an offer to serve in the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry Regiment as 2nd Lieutenant . He was baptized by fire at the Battle of Front Royal on May 23, 1862 . On August 9, 1862, the regiment suffered great losses during the Battle of Cedar Mountain , on September 17 of the same year, Shaw was now captain in his regiment, it again suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Antietam , where he was on the front line .

After Lincoln's declaration of emancipation and the Battle of Antietam, there was a demand for regiments with black soldiers to be set up. Frederick Douglass campaigned for this in Massachusetts with Governor John Albion Andrew . It was decided to form the 54th Infantry Regiment only from black recruits. Shaw got the offer to set up and command this regiment as its colonel . After initial hesitation and doubt, he finally accepted the offer. After the training of his regiment, it was ordered with Shaw by Maj. General David Hunter , the commander of the Department of the South, to his headquarters in Hilton Head , South Carolina, and there transferred to the 2nd South Carolina Infantry, a regiment also black under the command of Colonel James Montgomery . Together with Montgomery, Shaw took part in an expedition along the coast of Georgia . In the course of this expedition, Shaw's regiment burned the undefended and almost deserted city of Darien on the orders of Montgomery. As a result of this incident, Maj . General Hunter was replaced by General Quincy Adams Gillmore and Shaw was assigned to General George Crockett Strong's brigade , headquartered on Morris Island off Charleston , South Carolina . Strong was assigned to carry out an attack on Fort Wagner, a Confederate fortification in the port of Charleston.

Shaw saw the opportunity to gain fame and appreciation for the battered and ill-treated black troops in a successful attack with his regiment, and agreed to lead the attack, causing enormous losses for his regiment. On the evening of July 18, 1863, the regiment went to storm Fort Wagner . As soon as the soldiers left the protection of their cover, they were already under fire, but reached the earthworks and were even able to get inside. Shaw fell while attacking one of Fort Wagner's earthworks. His regiment was eventually pushed back and the attack failed.

funeral

Shaw's body was buried in a mass grave with his men by the Confederates. During a truce, Union officers asked for the body to be handed over, to which Confederate General Johnson Hagood replied, “ We have buried him with his niggers. ”(German:“ We buried him with his niggers. ”) These words aroused outrage on the part of the Union and were even processed in numerous poems.

When Shaw's father was offered by the Union to search for his son's body and to be transferred to the bed, he replied in a letter: “ We hold that a soldier's most appropriate burial-place is on the field where he has fallen. "(German:" We are of the opinion that the most suitable burial place for a soldier is the field where he fell. ")

reception

The fate of the regiment and Shaw is detailed in the film Glory . He is embodied in this film by Matthew Broderick .

Trivia

Harriet Tubman served as a cook in Shaw's regiment during the attack on Fort Wagner. It is reported that she cooked and served Shaw his last meal.

Honors

• In 1864 a bust of Shaw was made by Edmonia Lewis .
• The Robert Gould Shaw Memorial opened in Boston in 1897.
• On the Moravian Cemetery in Staten Iceland New York is a monument Shaw.
• The poet Robert Lowell mentions Shaw in his poem For the Union Dead .
• The poet Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote the poem Robert Gould Shaw
• The poet Benjamin Griffith Brawley dedicated the poem My Hero to Shaw
• The Shaw district , Washington, DC is named after him. This is a district that was founded by freed slaves.

literature

• Luis F. Emilio: A Brave Black Regiment: History of the Fifty-Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry . Boston 1894
• James M. McPherson: Drawn with the Sword . Oxford University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-19-511796-4 . Especially the chapter "The Glory Story".

Remarks

1. ↑ James M. McPherson, p. 104
2. ↑ Luis F. Emilio, p. 102 f.
3. ^ Paul Laurence Dunbar : Robert Gould Shaw . In: Poems .
4. ^ Benjamin Griffith Brawley : My Hero . In: James Weldon Johnson (Ed.): The Book of American Negro Poetry, With an Essay on the Negro's Creative Genius . Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York 1922.