Shaw, Robert Gould

Shaw, Robert Gould, 1837–63, Union hero in the American Civil War, b. Boston. An ardent white abolitionist, he was colonel of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the first body of black troops raised in a free state. He was killed leading the regiment in the attack on Fort Wagner, Charleston, S.C. A sculpted memorial of Shaw leading his troops by Augustus Saint-Gaudens is on Boston Common.

See study by P. Burchard (1970).

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