Retired General Colin Powell spoke at the 100th anniversary commemoration of the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial in 1997.
“To my dying day, I will not forget that I became chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff because of the men of the 54th Regiment.”
– Colin Powell
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- Gettysburg Daily
Speaking at the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial General Colin Powell addressed the legac y of the 54th Regiment. He later served as Secretary of State during the administration of President George W. Bush.
- United States Army
Glory!
The Shaw memorial, across Beacon Street from the Massachusetts State House, commemorates the African-American 54th Regiment, one of three black regiments recruited in Massachusetts during the Civil War. Featured in the film Glory!, many are familiar with its story and its tragic assault on Fort Wagner near Charleston, South Carolina, in 1863.
Fifty-forth Regiment re-enactors fire the modern imagination.
- National Park ServiceHistorical Justice
Augustus Saint-Gaudens sculpted the memorial dedicated to Robert Gould Shaw, the white colonel who died leading the regiment and was buried in a common grave with his men. For decades, the men in the regiment remained anonymous. In 1984 the monument was restored and the names of its African-American soldiers were added
Gettysburg Monument . . .
Lewis and Harriet Hayden departed in a carriage on the Maysville Road. Their disguise reportedly included an application of white fl our. On a risky journey thirteen tollhouses separated them from freedom at 5-mile intervals.
- Bullock Photographic Collection, Transylvania University Library
Gettysburg Monument . . .
Calvin Fairbank was sentenced to fifteen years at hard labor for his role in the Hayden’s escape. Lewis raised $650 for his release after four years, ten months, and twenty-four days. Delia Webster received a two-year sentence that was soon commuted. Fairbank wrote a lighthearted account of his time in prison. “My head shaven close, I dressed in stripes and put to sawing stones.”
- University of Kentucky Archives
Restoration
Speaking to a group of school children at the Shaw Memorial, State Representative Byron Rushing asked, “What color are those men?” When the children answered “green” he initiated a restoration project to return the bronze sculpture to its original color
- Massachusetts Archives