Biography Of Robert Gould Shaw

782 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Free slaves in the 1800s

Robert Gould Shaw was born in Boston, Massachusetts 1837 into a family of abolitionists, unlike his mother Sarah Blake, and his father Francis George Robert Gould Shaw did not really have a thing for freeing slaves but his parents had a passion for it. They wanted to end the slave act and have them freed. his dad was called one of the advocates of the abolition of slavery and his mother was a part of it too. The Shaws had a large inheritance left by his paternal grandfather, Robert Gould Shaw, from which he got his name. Shaw had four sisters Anna, Josephine, Susanna, and Ellen. When Robert was five he moved to a large estate in West Roxbury, New York. when he was a teenager he traveled to Europe to study mathematics and foreign languages. While he was in Europe, he learned to play the piano and violin in boarding school in Switzerland. He also went traveled in Europe for social activities, like going to the theater, opera, concerts, and parties. Later on in his life Shaw passed an exam to get into Harvard University back in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was not good with academics and spent most of his time playing sports and music. He was involved in a musical group in which he played the violin. Shaw left Harvard before he actually graduated, disappointed because he was not sure what sort of career he was going to go after. He did not seem like he had any further plans for himself.
With the start of the Civil War, Shaw decided that on April 18th 1861, he would join the Seventh New York National Guard. This regiment marched into battle in Washington, D.C. for 30 days, ordered by the president they fought against the Confederates from Virginia to protect Washington D.C. and won the battle, but that regiment fell apart so Sha...

... middle of paper ...

...n the chest by one of the Confederates and died almost instantly. As an act of insult, the Confederates buried his body with many of his men. Following the battle, Confederate General Johnson Hagood returned the bodies of the fallen soldiers of the Union who had died in the battle but he left Shaws body where it was. Johnson Hagood informed a captured surgeon of the Union ,“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 niggers that fell with him." Even though it was intended to be an insult, Shaw’s friends and family took it as an honorable thing that he was buried with his African-American soldiers. His father Francis George politically proclaimed that he was proud to know that his son was buried with his troops and befitted his role as a soldier and was a crusader of equality.

Show More
Related

  • Glory

    1891 Words  | 4 Pages

    The 1989 film Glory is a classic Civil War film based on the history of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment. The film focuses on the courage displayed by the first black regiment in the Civil War, also known as the “Fighting Fifty-fourth.” The regiment headed by the admirable Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, Matthew Broderick, must overcome an enormous amount of adversity during the war. The film was daring for filmmakers Zwick and Fields because it was a film not only with, “vivid and frightening battle scenes and finely etched dramatic characters, but a film that shattered the great Civil War taboo-it told a story of African Americans(Chadwick). Many articles and texts leading up to the film failed to mention the participation of African Americans in the Civil War. In fact, the participation of African Americans helped turn the course of the war and nearly 300,000 fought for the North.

    Read More

  • Comparing The North And The South In Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels

    651 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nevertheless, an attitude they show is their cause for engaging in the war. On page 110, Lee describes, “With every step of a soldier, with every tick of the clock, the army was gaining safety, closer to victory, closer to the dream of independence.” His words reveal that their reason for coming was to gain their long overdue independence. Without a cause worth fighting for on each side, the war would have no fuel or reason to continue. In like manner, another attitude of the South was their admiration for their commander general. On page 251, Longstreet proclaims, “Colonel, let me explain something. The secret of General Lee is that men love him and follow him with faith in him. That’s one secret.” I believe this clarifies that the bond of brotherhood and respect for each other in this army would allow for these soldiers to follow their leader blindly. The overwhelming amount of faith and trust among the Army of the Northern Virginia is inspiring. The Confederates prove in these appearances that they do indeed have an important cause that they are willing to die

    Read More

  • The 54th Regiment of Massachusetts: African-American Soldiers of the Civil War

    2301 Words  | 5 Pages

    Training began for Black volunteers at Camp Meigs in Readville, MA on February 21, 1863. Although some members of the community voiced opposition to the prevention of Black men from achieving the rank of colonel or officer, most community activists urged Black men to seize the opportunity to serve in the Union forces. The fear many Black volunteers had about the potential racism of White officers and colonels was calmed when Massachusetts Governor John Andrew assured Bostonians that White officers assigned to the 54th Regiment would be "young men of military experience, of firm anti-slavery principles, ambitious, superior to a vulgar contempt for color, and having faith in the capacity of colored men for military service." (Emilio 1990) Andrew held to his word, appointing 25-year-old Robert Gould Shaw as colonel and George P. Hallowell as Lieutenant. The son of wealthy abolitionists, Shaw had been educated in Europe and at Harvard before joining the seventh New York National Guard in 1861. In 1862, when Governor Andrew contacted Shaw's father about the prospect of commissioning his son as colonel of the soon-to-be organized fifty-fourth, Shaw was an officer in the Second Mass...

    Read More

  • Essay On Stonewall Jackson

    842 Words  | 2 Pages

    He was one of the most commonly known Confederate commanders after General Lee. On May 2nd, 1863 at the Battle of Chancellorsville, a soldier from the Confederate side accidentally shot him leaving Jackson wounded with the loss of his arm. He died eight days later due to pneumonia. His death was a major setback to the Confederacy because not only was he courageous, he was brilliant, and religious too. Courage: the ability to do something that frightens one, meaning the act of being courageous is not to be deterred by danger.

    Read More

  • Glory

    883 Words  | 2 Pages

    Black soldiers were among the bravest of those fighting in the Civil War. Both free Blacks in the Union army and escaped slaves from the South rushed to fight for their freedom and they fought with distinction in many major Civil War battles. Many whites thought Blacks could not be soldiers. They were slaves. They were inferior. Many thought that if Blacks could fight in the war it would make them equal to whites and prove the theory of slavery was wrong. Even though Black soldiers had to face much discrimination during the Civil War, they were willing to fight to the death for their freedom. In the movie “Glory“ the director focused on the African Americans in the north that fought in the 54th regiment led by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. During the time of the Civil War, the African Americans that fought in the 54th regiment were often treated unfairly but there were always nice people that backed them up.

    Read More

  • The Blacks in the Civil War

    333 Words  | 1 Pages

    The First Louisiana Native Guards became the first Black regiment to receive official recognition from the government. The Union brass had initially prevented the Blacks from seeing action in the war. Colonel Robert Shaw and his men of the Massachusetts 54th had to overcome fear, mockery and racism before they were allowed to fight. By the end of 1863, many thousands Blacks found employment in the Union Army. There were some 50, 000 Black soldiers in the ranks. Although Black soldiers were promised $13 a month, they were insulted with an offer of $7 a month. Black soldiers and sailors became indispensable elements in a war that could not have been won without their help. The triumph of the Union forces was due to a number of factors, including Northern technology and the spirit of the age. But the most preeminent factor was the contribution of slaves and freedmen who provided the margin of difference that turned the tide against the Confederate forces in 1864 and 1865. According to official records, there were 185, 000 Black soldiers in the Union Army. Their mortality rate was disproportionately high, 21% of the total number of Black soldiers. Equally visible and heroic were the sailors in the Union Navy. One out of every four Union sailors was black, they served on Union ships as coal heavers, stewards, boatswains, firemen and gunners. In addition the North was forwarded by more than 200,000 civilians, mostly freed slaves. They served as spies and scouts. The most remarkable of all Union spies was a woman named Harriet Tubman.

    Read More

  • The Black Flower by Howard Bahr

    1383 Words  | 3 Pages

    Welcher, Frank J. The Union Army, 1861–1865 Organization and Operations. Vol. 2, The Western Theater. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. ISBN 0-253-36454-X.

    Read More

  • Jean Toomer- An African American Writer

    1177 Words  | 3 Pages

    He has the knowledge of philosophy and psychology. He attempted to write when he was a youth, but he made a choice to pursue a literary career in 1919. After he published Cane, he became part of New York literary circles. He objected both rivalries that prevailed in the fraternity of writers and to attempts to promote him as a black writer (Claypool 3). In Washington in 1921 he took care of his grandparents and wrote full time....

    Read More

  • Fredrick Douglass

    1342 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...e torture and pain of slavery, he had an excellent reason to fight for the abolitionist movement. He became successful in his fight against slavery. His works documented the rise of a slave to a free man, to a respected speaker, to a famous writer and politician.

    Read More

  • God and General Longstreet: The Lost Cause and the Southern Mind

    1496 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...h, and then four years later, his same devotion to principle focused on mending the torn Union. It is here that Connolly and Burrows identify the key irony of the Lost Cause as they exclaim, " The Vindication of the Confederacy rested heavily upon its supreme hero, and in the process, Robert E. Lee was robbed of much of his southernism"(95).

    Read More

  • Trip And Thomas In The Movie Glory

    452 Words  | 1 Pages

    Col. Robert Gould Shaw “It is a great pleasure to see you all here today. It is my hope that the same courage, spirit, and honor, which has brought us together, will one day restore this Union. May God bless us all.” Col. Shaw had hope that he would lead his regiment to victory. The movie Glory is a dramatic representation of the Civil Wa. Col. Shaw is tasked with the job of training the first African-American regiment for war. The men went through intense training fortunately when the men went to battle they proved themselves victorious. Thomas faces many challenges with other, society, and themselves.

    Read More

  • African Americans in the Civil War

    585 Words  | 2 Pages

    African American contributions were not limited to the role of working the fields in the south or supplying labor for industry in the north. Many Negroes in both south and north participated in either direct or supporting roles in the military. While few saw combat in the south many northern black troops did see combat. The north started using black regiments to further beef up its already large white force. This spurred the southern General Robert E. Lee in 1865 to reopen the idea of using slaves as soldiers for the south. This idea had previously been trashed by legislators. One General Cobb of Georgia stated, "You cannot make soldiers of slaves....If slaves will make good soldiers our whole theory of slavery is wrong." With Robert E. Lee being as respected as he was and the reality that the war was at a crises point for the Confederacy his statement on the use of Negro soldiers "We should employ them without delay," was heard and implemented. A month before Appomattox President Davis signed the "Negro Soldier Law" authorizing slave enlistments. The act was too little too late, the war was already lost for the south.

    Read More

  • andrew jackson

    1156 Words  | 3 Pages

    Carolina. The. His father died before the war, and his mother and siblings all died during the war from disease or other causes, leaving him an orphan at the age of 14. When he was a kid he only received sporadic education, and education back then was simply not enough. But he did well and eventually went on to study law.

    Read More

  • Robert E Lee

    790 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lee is very quick; he organized scattered confederate troops into the famed Army of Northern Virginia in just three weeks. Lee’s wisdom urged him to keep the Union as far away as possible from the armament producing center of Richmond and far away from the northern part of the state where farmers were harvesting crops. Lee knows that defeats of such decisive sports will weaken our will to continue the war, and he prevented this at all costs.

    Read More

  • The Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier

    1495 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first Unknown Soldier’s corpse was from a battlefield in France. His remains were then put into a casket and sent to America. On the day of the tomb’s opening there was a large celebration that many attended to show reverence to the unknown, and to other men that died in battle. In America the soldier’s casket was followed by a large parade of military men to his resting place on top of a hill at the Arlington National Cemetery. In the video, US Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the narrator says, “In the amphitheatre of the Arlington Cemetery President Harding delivered a speech about the tomb. He then placed a congressional medal on the casket.” In this short video you can see the grief on all the civilians’ faces. This ceremony was a special part of America’s history. People were beginning to realize how real war was. People saw first hand that soldiers were putting their lives on the line for the sake of the U.S. citizens’ freedom. There were many soldiers to choose from to put into the tomb from each war. People who were high up in the military

    Read More

More about Biography Of Robert Gould Shaw

Open Document