Robert Gould Shaw

Robert Gould Shaw was born in Boston on 10 October 1837 into a wealthy family active in the abolitionist cause. He studied briefly at Harvard, traveled in Europe, and when the Civil War began he enlisted as a private in the 7th New York Militia, then took a commission in the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry. In 1863 Governor John A. Andrew offered him command of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, a regiment of Black volunteers. Shaw, after some hesitation, accepted and was made colonel. He insisted that his men be treated as soldiers, and he led them in their first fights along the South Carolina coast. On 18 July 1863 he commanded the 54th in a frontal assault on Confederate Battery Wagner, on Morris Island near Charleston. He was killed on the parapet. The Confederate garrison buried him in a mass grave with his soldiers, intending it as an insult; his family later declined to have the body moved, saying he was honored to lie with his men.

See also: Abraham Lincoln