"Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow." - Lord Byron

Commissioned from the the American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens in the early 1880s and dedicated in 1897, the Shaw Memorial has been acclaimed as the greatest American sculpture of the nineteenth century. The massive bronze memorial commemorates the valor of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the men of the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth Volunteer Infantry, the first Civil War unit of African Americans enlisted in the North.

The 54th was raised shortly after the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. The unit was led by 25 year old Robert Gould Shaw. Shaw was from Boston and the son of abolitionist parents. The 54th became famous for its audacious attack on the heavily protected Fort Wagner, which guarded the port of Charleston, South Carolina. Of the 600 men in the 54th who entered the battle, 281 were killed, wounded, missing, or taken prisoner in the attack. Shaw died at age 26 leading his troops on the parapet of Fort Wagner, July 18, 1863.

The Shaw Memorial is now located at The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.