On This Day In 1863 . . .

…in 1863, the 54^th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first black regiment from the North, paraded in full dress uniform on Boston Common. Crowds cheered as 1,007 black soldiers and 37 white officers passed in review. After ceremonies at the State House, they marched to Battery Wharf and boarded steamships for South Carolina. Just seven weeks later, 74 men and their commanding officer, Robert Gould Shaw, were killed in an heroic assault on Fort Wagner. On Memorial Day 1897, 60 veterans of the 54^th were among hundreds of people who gathered on the Common for the unveiling of Augustus Saint-Gaundens’ Memorial to Robert Shaw and the 54^th Massachusetts Regiment. This statue remains one of the great works of public art in the country.