Chapter 21
recording by david leeson hero tales from american history by henry cabot lodge and theodore roosevelt robert gould shaw written by henry cabot lodge brave good and true i see him stand before me now and read again on that young brow where every hope was new how sweet were life yet by the mouth firm set and look made up for duty's utmost debt i could divine he knew that death within the sulphurous hostile lines in the mere wreck of nobly pitched designs plucks heart's ease and not rue right in the van on the red ramparts slippery swell with heart that beat a charge he fell forward as fits a man but the high soul burns on to light men's feet where death for noble ends makes dying sweet his life her crescents span orbs full with share in their undarkening days who ever climbed the battalious steeps of praise since valour's praise began
we bide our chance unhappy and make terms with fate a little more to let us wait he leads for i the advance hope's forlorn hopes that plant the desperate good for nobler earths and days of manlier mood our wall of circumstance cleared at a bound he flashes o'er the fight a saintly shape of fame to cheer the right and steal each wavering glance i write of one while with dim eyes i think of three who weeps not others fair and brave as he ah when the fight is won dear land whom triflers now make bold to scorn thee from whose forehead earth awaits her morn how nobler shall the sun flame in thy sky how braver breathe thy air that thou bredst children who for thee could dare and die as thine have done lowell robert guldshaw was born in boston on october tenth eighteen thirty seven the son of francis and sarah sturgesshaw when he was about nine years old his parents moved to staten island and he was educated there and at school in the neighborhood of new york
until he went to europe in eighteen fifty three where he remained traveling and studying for the next three years he entered harvard college in eighteen fifty six and left at the end of his third year in order to accept an advantageous business offer in new york even as a boy he took much interest in politics and especially in the question of slavery he voted for lincoln in eighteen sixty and at that time enlisted as a private in the new york seventh regiment feeling that there was likelihood of trouble and that there would be a demand for soldiers to defend the country his foresight was justified only too soon and on april nineteenth eighteen sixty one he marched with his regiment to washington the call for the seventh regiment was only for thirty days and at the expiration of that service he applied for and obtained a commission as second lieutenant in the second massachusetts and left with that regiment for virginia in july eighteen sixty one he threw himself eagerly into his new duties and soon gained a good position in the regiment at cedar mountain he was an aide on general gordon's staff and was greatly exposed in the performance of his duties during the action he was also with his regiment at antietam and was in the midst of the heavy fighting of that great battle
early in eighteen sixty three the government determined to form negro regiments and governor andrew offered shaw who had now risen to the rank of captain the colonelcy of one to be raised in massachusetts the first black regiment recruited under state authority it was a great compliment to receive this offer but shaw hesitated as to his capacity for such a responsible post he first wrote a letter declining on the ground that he did not feel that he had ability enough for the undertaking and then changed his mind and telegraphed governor andrew that he would accept it is not easy to realize it now but his action then in accepting this command required high moral courage of a kind quite different from that which he had displayed already on the field of battle The prejudice against the blacks was still strong even in the north. There was a great deal of feeling among certain classes against enlisting black regiments at all,
and the officers who undertook to recruit and lead Negroes were exposed to much attack and criticism. Shaw felt, however, that this very opposition made it all the more incumbent on him to undertake the duty. He wrote on February 8, After I have undertaken this work, I shall feel that what I have to do is to prove that the negro can be made a good soldier. I am inclined to think that the undertaking will not meet with so much opposition as was at first supposed.
All sensible men in the army, of all parties, after a little thought, say that it is the best thing that can be done, and surely those at home who are not brave or patriotic enough to enlist should not ridicule or throw obstacles in the way of men who are going to fight for them. There is a great prejudice against it, but now that it has become a government matter, that will probably wear away. At any rate I shan't be frightened out of it by its unpopularity. I feel convinced that I shall never regret having
taken this step, as far as I myself am concerned, for while I was undecided, I felt ashamed of myself as if I were cowardly. Colonel Shaw went at once to Boston, after accepting his new duty, and began the work of raising and drilling the 54th Regiment. He met with great success, for he and his officers labored heart and soul, and the regiment repaid their efforts. On March 30 he wrote,
war which those who saw it never forgot. The regiment was ordered to South Carolina, and when they were off Cape Hatteras, Colonel Shaw wrote, The more I think of the passage of the 54th through Boston, the more wonderful it seems to me. Just remember our own doubts and fears, and other people's sneering and pitying remarks when we began last winter, and then look at the perfect triumph of last Thursday. We have gone quietly
along, forming the first regiment, and at last left Boston amidst greater enthusiasm than has been seen since the first three months' troops left for the war. Truly, I ought to be thankful for all my happiness and my success in life so far, and if the raising of colored troops proves such a benefit to the country and to the blacks as many people think it will, I shall thank God a thousand times that I was led to take my share in it. He had indeed taken his share in striking
one of the most fatal blows to the barbarism of slavery which had yet been struck. The formation of the black regiments did more for the emancipation of the Negro and the recognition of his rights than almost anything else. It was impossible after that to say that men who fought and gave their lives for the Union and for their own freedom were not entitled to be free. the acceptance of the command of a black regiment by such men as shaw and his fellow officers was the great act which made all this possible after reaching south carolina colonel shaw was with his regiment at port royal and on the islands of that coast for rather more than a month
and on july eighteenth he was offered the post of honour in an assault upon fort wagner which was ordered for that night he had proved that the negroes could be made into a good regiment and now the second great opportunity had come to prove their fighting quality he wanted to demonstrate that his men could fight side by side with white soldiers and show to somebody beside their officers what stuff they were made of he therefore accepted the dangerous duty with gladness late in the day the troops were marched across folly and morris islands and formed in line of battle within six hundred yards of fort wagner at half-past seven the order for the charge was given and the regiment advanced when they were within a hundred yards of the fort the rebel fire opened with such effect that the first battalion hesitated and wavered colonel shaw sprang to the front and waving his sword shouted forward fifty-fourth with another cheer the men rushed through the ditch and gained a parapet on the right colonel shaw was one of the first to scale the walls as he stood erect a noble figure ordering his men forward and shouting them to press on he was shot dead and fell into the fort after his fall the assault was repulsed
general heywood commanding the rebel forces said to a union prisoner i knew colonel shaw before the war and then esteemed him had he been in command of white troops i should have given him an honorable burial as it is i shall bury him in the common trench with the negroes that fell with him he little knew that he was giving the dead soldier the most honourable burial that man could have devised for the savage words told unmistakably that robert shaw's work had not been in vain the order to bury him with his niggers which ran through the north and remained fixed in our history showed in a flash of light the hideous barbarism of a system which made such things and such feelings possible it also showed that slavery was wounded to the death and that the brutal phrase was the angry snarl of a dying tiger such words rank with the action of charles stuart when he had the bones of oliver cromwell and robert blake torn from their graves and flung on dunghills or fixed on temple bar robert shaw fell in battle at the head of his men giving his life to his country as did many other gallant men during those four years of conflict but he did something more than this he faced prejudice and hostility in the north and confronted the blind and savage rage of the south in order to demonstrate to the world that the human beings who were held in bondage
could vindicate their right to freedom by fighting and dying for it he helped mightily in the great task of destroying human slavery and in uplifting an oppressed and downtrodden race he brought to this work the qualities which were particularly essential for his success he had all that birth and wealth breeding education and tradition could give he offered up in full measure all those things which make life most worth living he was handsome and beloved he had a serene and beautiful nature and was at once brave and simple above all things he was fitted for the task which he performed and for the sacrifice which he made the call of the country and of the time came to him and he was ready he has been singled out for remembrance from among many others of equal sacrifice and a monument is rising to his memory in boston because it was his peculiar fortune to live and die for a great principle of humanity and to stand forth as an ideal and beautiful figure in a struggle where the onward march of civilization was at stake he lived in those few and crowded years a heroic life and he met a heroic death when he fell sword in hand on the parapet of wagner
leading his black troops in a desperate assault we can only say of him as bunyan said of valiant for truth and then he passed over and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side ebook of robert gould shaw by henry cabot lodge
