

The group's memory is enshrined in the 116-year-old bronze Shaw Memorial by Augustus Saint-Gaudens on the Boston Common. It was built to honor Col. Robert Gould Shaw, who led the regiment and died in battle. The regiment included 72 black soldiers from Berkshire County.

Now, the National Gallery of Art in Washington has organized the exhibition "Tell it with Pride," opening Sunday, to explore the black soldiers honored in the memorial. The gallery holds and exhibits Saint-Gaudens' original painted plaster sculpture of the Shaw Memorial, which won a grand prize for sculpture at the 1900 Universal Exposition in Paris. It is considered among the finest examples of 19th century American sculpture.



"Until President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, none of these African-American men had been allowed to wear the Union blue; none had been allowed to carry a gun to defend their country; and even their very bravery and their dedication to their country had been questioned," curator Sarah Greenough said at an exhibition preview. "Yet their heroic stance at Fort Wagner began to silence such questions."


The results of the battle were devastating, though. About a third of the regiment's soldiers sent into battle were killed, wounded or missing by the end as the Union forces were defeated.


"The regiment established its reputation as a fighting regiment, not a man flinched, though it was a trying time ... " Sgt. Major Lewis Douglass wrote home to his fiancee. "I wish we had a hundred thousand colored troops - we would put an end to this war."

An anonymous letter to Shaw's family announcing his death noted that the 54th regiment had marched side by side with white regiments and urged them to "tell it with pride to the world."

One newspaper wrote that it was a battle for the centuries, "and the black man there won his place among the freemen of the age and wiped out the stain of servitude."


"Every time I think of the men of the 54th," Cruz said, "I am overwhelmed and awed by their acts and deeds."

National Gallery of Art: http://www.nga.gov
MORE EAGLE REPORTS ON THE 54th | Stories by Andrew Amelinckx
Massachusetts 54th Volunteer Infantry proved their valor at Fort Wagner
Letter from 1863 reveals Mass. 54th's fight for equal pay
Black soldiers' struggle for equal pay long, often frustrating
Warm sendoff for Mass. 54th Volunteer Infantry before war in 1863
American flag from 1890s to be on display in Sheffield