Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Regiment Memorial, Boston, Visitor Guide & Things to Do Nearby

The Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment Memorial is a bronze relief on Beacon Street, facing the Massachusetts State House at the edge of Boston Common in Boston. It honors Colonel Shaw and the Black soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, one of the first Black regiments raised in the North during the Civil War. Sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens unveiled it in 1897, and it is widely counted among the finest public sculptures in the United States.

The story behind it

The 54th Massachusetts was formed in 1863, after the Emancipation Proclamation opened the Union Army to Black volunteers. Its commander was Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, a young white officer from a Boston family with strong abolitionist convictions. In July 1863 the regiment led the assault on Fort Wagner, near Charleston, South Carolina. The attack failed, the regiment took heavy losses, and Shaw was killed. Confederate forces buried him in a common grave with his men.

Saint-Gaudens worked on the memorial for many years before it was unveiled in 1897. Rather than show Shaw alone on a horse, he shows him with the soldiers marching beside him. The regiment reached a modern audience through the 1989 film Glory, with Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman and Matthew Broderick.

What to look for

• Look at the marching soldiers in the relief: their faces and gear are individual rather than generic, which gives the scene its human weight.
• Notice Shaw on horseback, set slightly apart from the column but moving in step with it.
• Find the winged figure floating above the procession, an allegory that gives the scene a note of memory and sacrifice.
• Stand across the street and see how the memorial faces the golden-domed State House, a placement that ties the regiment to the state that raised it.

Tips for your visit

• Allow 15 to 20 minutes to look closely at the relief and read the inscriptions.
• It is an outdoor monument on a public street, so you can visit it at any time and there is nothing to book.
• Early in the day is usually quieter, with fewer groups gathered on the pavement.
• Boston Common, the State House, Park Street Church and the Granary Burying Ground are all within a few minutes on foot.

See it on a quest

Historical Boston: The Record Breaker passes the memorial on foot as one stop of a longer route through the historic heart of the city. The app tells you about each place as you arrive and sets a puzzle based on what is in front of you, so you look at the bronze more closely than you would on a quick photo stop. It is a paid quest, and one ticket covers the whole group. You can start whenever you like, with no guide and no group to join.