The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-07
ROBERT GOULD SHAW.
Famous the First Colonel Of IA Me-
gro Regiment in the Civil War.


of the Shaw monument on the Common,
facing the Statehouse, it is realized by
young heros brief life that to the rising
generation that story is merely a vague
echo of ''far-off unhappy things. Its value
to our own time Is historic, patriotic, in
spring, as we'll OF that artistic interest
which has occupied so much preliminary
attention
Possibly the keynote of the feeling which
dims the eyes of his old comrades in arms
still in the prime of life among us, may be
found in some words from letter written
by George William Curtis to q friend when
Lincoln died. II feel that | cannot honor
too much or praise too highly, the people
he so truly represented and which, like him.
has been faithful to the end So spotlesS
he was, so patient, so tender, 1t Is a selfish
sad delight to me, now, as when | looked
upon his coffin, that his patience made me
patient, and that never doubted his head
or. his heart or his hand. At the only inter-
view l ever had with him. he shook my
hand paternally at parting and said, Don t
be troubled. l guess we shall get through
We have got through, at least the fighting
and still l cannot believe it. Here upon the
mantel are the portraits of the three boys
who went out of this room-ny brother
Joseph, Theodore Winthrop and Robbie
Shaw. They are all dead--the brave dar-
lings-and now L put the head of the dear
chief among them, / feel that every drop
of my blood, and thought of my mind and
affection of my heart is consecrated to Sc
curing the work made holy and forever i'm
perative by So untold a sacrifice. May God
keep us all as true as they were!'
ebrated in Boston in the ceremonies whose
eve we are approaching.
1t is Robbie the brave darling" as the
neighbor of his family on Staten island
called him, who is celebrated in the honors
to be paid to his memory. This gallant
young colonel of a negro regiment, aged
Wagner, is a symbolic figure in the history
of our Union. He stands for an element of
the best life of the day, the old come
cutters" the people who knew in advance
of many of their friends ana relations that
honor has no kinship with self-seeking, or
time-serving, that the path to glory leads
Robert Gould Shaw was the of a
father and mother who, as Abolitionists
long before the war; stood apart from
many of their Boston connections of mar
row conservatism that led to no interest in
the anti-Slavery agitation.
Francis George Shaw, the father, was al
ways a man of insight and of radical SYM
pathies. He was one of the Brook Farmers,
living in West RoXbury during the time of
that famous social experiment, and serving
there in many capacities later of town
service. In like manner he spent time and
money in all sorts of public and charitable
service after he removed to Staten island
where he lived for more than thirty years,
until his death about fifteen years ago. and
where his widow, the mother of the young
hero we celebrate, still lives on the beauti-
full estate where most of his boyhood was
spent. He was Boston-born, and he took
command of his colored regiment the Fiji
ty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteers, the
first mustered in free State, at the re-
quest of Governor Andrew At first he
sent a letter by his fathers hand declining
the command but before that letter was
delivered came his telegram from the
front, asking his father to please destroy
my letter, and telegraph the Governor L
accept"
A memorial sketch of Robert Shaw by
Sarah b. Shaw is prefaced by his military
"Private New York Volunteer Militia,
April 10, 1861; second lieutenant Second
Massachusetts Infantry, May %, 1861; first
lieutenant July s, 1861: captain Aug. 10. 1862;
colonel Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volun-
teers April IL, 1863; killed at Fort Wagner,
S. c., July 49, 1863" The memoir says:
During the year 1859 and 1860 there
might have been seen daily on the Staten
island ferryboat early in the morning and
late in the afternoon, pale, thoughtful
looking young man, with q manner so quiet
and serene as to seem almost lazy His
light hair and moustache and fair com
pleXion gave to his face a character that
might have been effeminate but for the
Well-defined nose, firm, clear-cut mouth and
the steady glance of the peculiarly colored
light gray eye, which. together with his
alert, quick, decided step as he moved
showed that beneath this quiet exterior lay
all the qualities that belong to a man of
more than common character This was
ris island, in Charleston harbor, one of the
many thousand young men who have fallen
victims to that Moloch, American slavery,
or we may rather say, to those victorious
lives and deaths the Moloch American
slavery, has fallen victim. He was born
-,
George and Sarah Blake Sturgis Shaw. He
early showed marked traits of character;
he was quick tempered, but very affection
ate, easily led, but never to be driven: At
q very early age he was sent to the school
of Mrs. Mary Peabody, who became Mrs.
Horace Mann, then to that of Miss Cabot
in West RoXbury; and then TO that of Mr..
W. p. Atkinson with whom he began the
Latin grammar. When he was nine years
old his parents removed to Staten island
where he went TO a small private school,
kept by learned and very impatient old
German who did not help the little fellow
to any more love of 'hic, haec, hoe When
he was thirteen he was sent away to
school: he was desperately homesick this
young hero, and wrote his mother:
" i do wish you would come and see me
right off and not wait long as / feel very
homesick. l thought at first / wouldn't
say anything about it, but / can't help It
I feel so. I've only been back here two or
three days, and it seems as long as all the
time l was at home Whenever | think
and sometimes l can't help crying before
all the boys. Do come and see me- mother,
or ask father to-
when he was sixteen the boy went to
Europe with mis- parents for a. year His
parents felt such confidence in his charac-
ter and habits as to allow him to be his
own master in Germany and they never
had reason to regret it. He entered Har-
ward when he was nineteen, but as his
father had done before him. he left college
in his junior year to go into business. He
in the office of one of his uncles in New
York until the war began, and during those
two years he was the joy of the home on
Staten island, going to and from New York
daily. Then at twentY-four he went to the
front, and when he fell two years later at
the head of his cOlored regiment, he was
buried, by order of the officer in command.
on the other side in the ditch just beyond
the common trench where all the black
bodies had been buried.
RREAF<FACT WITH GOMEZ.