Books & Manuscripts, including Americana

CDV on cardstock mount depicting Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. Verso with Whipple's Boston imprint with 297 Washington Street address. Some minor marginal soiling on recto, soiling to verso.

Robert Gould Shaw served as commander of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War, the first all-Black regiment to serve in the Northeast. Following Lincoln's issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation on 1 January 1863 the Union Army began general recruitment of African-American soldiers to fight in its ranks. Among those active in recruitment was Frederick Douglass, whose sons Lewis Henry and Charles Remond were among the first to enlist. The unit was mustered out to South Carolina in May and became part of the X Corps commanded by General David Hunter.

Among the unit's most notable engagements was the Battle of Grimball's Landing on 16 July and the Second Battle of Fort Wagner two days later. During this battle the 54th launched a frontal assault on the fort, suffering casualties of 20 dead, 125 wounded, and 102 missing. Shaw was shot as he mounted a parapet, encouraging his troops to move forward. The Union forces were ultimately defeated. While the bodies of other Union officers were collected to be shipped back to their families, Confederate General Johnson Hagood had Shaw's body buried with the other dead soldiers of his regiment. Though intended as an insult to Gould, the gesture made him a hero in the north, with Gould's own father proclaiming that he was proud to have his son buried with his men. As a result of this battle thousands more African-American men enlisted, which President Abraham Lincoln credited as being one of the key deciding factors in the Union's ultimate victory over the Confederacy. The story of the 54th Massachusetts was dramatized in the Academy Award-winning film, Glory.