Editing 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment (section)

==Legacy==
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|image1=RGShawGARPost146.jpg
|caption1=[[Grand Army of the Republic]] uniform hat badge from Post No. 146, "RG Shaw Post", established by surviving members of the 54th Massachusetts in 1871
|image2=Robert Gould Shaw Memorial (36053).jpg
|caption2=[[Augustus Saint-Gaudens]]' 1884 memorial to Col. Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts
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A [[Robert Gould Shaw Memorial|monument to Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts regiment]], constructed 1884–1898 by [[Augustus Saint-Gaudens]] on the [[Boston Common (park)|Boston Common]], is part of the Boston [[Black Heritage Trail (Boston)|Black Heritage Trail]].<ref>[https://www.nps.gov/articles/54th-massachusetts-regiment.htm National Park Service]</ref>{{sfnp|Laplante|2006|p=1}} A plaster of this monument was also displayed in the entryway to the U.S. paintings galleries at the Paris Universal Exposition of 1900.{{sfnp|Fischer|1999|p=14}}

Governor John A. Andrew said of the regiment, "I know not where, in all of human history, to any given thousand men in arms there has been committed a work at once so proud, so precious, so full of hope and glory."{{sfnp|Emilio|1891|p=2}}

A famous composition by [[Charles Ives]], "Col. Shaw and his Colored Regiment", the opening movement of ''[[Three Places in New England]]'', is based both on the monument and the regiment.{{sfnp|Laplante|2006|p=1}}

Sergeant Stephen A. Swails of the 54th Massachusetts regiment became the first African American to receive commission as an officer of a combat regiment of the regular Union army.<ref name=":0" />

Colonel Shaw and his men feature prominently in [[Robert Lowell]]'s Civil War centennial poem "[[For the Union Dead#"For the Union Dead" (poem)|For the Union Dead]]." It was originally titled "Colonel Shaw and the Massachusetts' 54th" and published in ''[[Life Studies]]'' (1959). In the poem, Lowell uses the Robert Gould Shaw memorial as a symbolic device to comment on broader societal change, including racism and segregation, as well as his more personal struggle to cope with a rapidly changing Boston.{{sfnp|Garvin|1977|p=165}}

A Union officer had asked the Confederates at Battery Wagner for the return of Shaw's body but was informed by the Confederate commander, Brigadier General [[Johnson Hagood (governor)|Johnson Hagood]], "We buried him with his niggers."{{sfnp|Burchard| 1965| p=143}} Shaw's father wrote in response that he was proud that Robert, a fierce fighter for equality, had been buried in that manner.{{sfnp|Buescher|2008|ps=Teachinghistory.org, ''Ask a Historian''}} "We hold that a soldier's most appropriate burial-place is on the field where he has fallen."{{sfnp|Brown| 1867| p=380}} As a recognition and honor, at the end of the Civil War, the [[1st South Carolina Volunteers (Union)|1st South Carolina Volunteers]], and the 33rd Colored Regiment were mustered out at the [[Battery Wagner]] site of the mass burial of the 54th Massachusetts.{{sfnp|Egerton|2016|p=358}}

More recently, the story of the unit was depicted in the 1989 [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]]-winning [[film]] ''[[Glory (1989 film)|Glory]]'', starring [[Matthew Broderick]] as Shaw, [[Denzel Washington]] as Private Trip, [[Morgan Freeman]], [[Cary Elwes]], Jihmi Kennedy and [[Andre Braugher]]{{sfnp|IMDb ''Glory''|1989}} The film re-established the now-popular image of the combat role African Americans played in the Civil War, and the unit, often represented in historical battle [[American Civil War reenactment|reenactments]], now has the [[nickname]] the "Glory" regiment.{{sfnp|Laplante|2006|p=1}}