The magnificent Robert Gould Shaw memorial (described below) stands north-east of Boston Common opposite the Massachusetts State House on the corner of Beacon and Park streets.
A number of important poems have been written about Robert Gould Shaw, among them James Russell Lowell's 'Memoriae Positum R. G. S.' (1864), William Vaughn Moody's 'An Ode in Time of Hesitation' (1900), John Berryman's 'Boston Common' (1948), and Robert Lowell's 'Colonel Shaw and the Massachusetts 54th', which was reprinted as 'For the Union Dead' (1959 and 1960).
'THE MONUMENT
THE SHAW-54TH REGIMENT MEMORIAL HONORS COLONEL ROBERT SHAW AND MEMBERS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS 54TH REGIMENT WHO DIED IN THE ASSAULT ON FORT WAGNER, SOUTH CAROLINA, JULY 18, 1863. THE 54TH WAS THE FIRST REGIMENT OF BLACK VOLUNTEERS FROM THE NORTH TO FIGHT IN THE CIVIL WAR. ON THE BACK OF THE MONUMENT ARE INSCRIBED THE NAMES OF THE MEMBERS OF THE 54TH WHO DIED WITH COLONEL SHAW IN THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM AND UNION. THE MONUMENT WAS ERECTEDD THROUGH PRIVATE DONATIONS AND GIVEN TO THE CITY OF BOSTON IN 1897. IT BECAME PART OF BOSTON AFRICAN-AMERICAN NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE IN 1980. FUNDS CONTRIBUTED FROM ACROSS THE UNITED STATES MADE POSSIBLE ITS RESTORATION IN 1983-1984.'
'THE SCULPTOR
THE SHAW-54TH REGIMENT MEMORIAL, THE OUTSTANDING
TRIBUTE TO SOLDIERS OF THE CIVIL WAR, WAS CREATED
BY ONE OF AMERICA'S FOREMOST SCULPTORS, AUGUSTUS
SAINT GAUDENS (1848-1907). BORN IN DUBLIN, OF A
FRENCH FATHER AND AN IRISH MOTHER, HE GREW UP IN
NEW YORK, WAS APPRENTICED TO A CAMEO CUTTER AT 13,
AND STUDIED AT THE ECOLE DES BEAUX ARTS IN PARIS.
HE BEST KNOWN WORKS INCLUDE THE ADAMS MEMORIAL
IN WASHINGTON, D.C., GENERAL SHERMAN IN NEW YORK AND
PRESIDENT LINCOLN IN CHICAGO. HIS HOME IN CORNISH,
NEW HAMPSHIRE IS A NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE. THE SETTING
FOR THE MEMORIAL WAS DESIGNED BY THE DISTINGUISHED
ARCHITECT, CHARLES F. MCKIM.'
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