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Robert Gould Shaw
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Robert Gould Shaw.
Learn about the 54th Regiment, a Black infantry unit from Massachusetts that fought in the Civil War
54th Regiment monument Scene from the film Glory showing Morgan Freeman, Cary Elwes, Andre Braugher, Matthew Broderick, and Jihmi Kennedy in Civil War uniforms during a training session outdoors.
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54th Massachusetts Regiment. "Storming Fort Wagner," by Kurz & Allison, c. 1890. Depicts the assault on the S.C. fort on 7/18/1863. American Civil War, 54th Regiment Massachusetts Infantry, 1st all African-American regiment, black soldiers, black history
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Robert Gould Shaw.
Robert Gould Shaw.

Robert Gould Shaw

Union army officer
Written by
Jeff Wallenfeldt
Jeff Wallenfeldt was manager of Geography and History at Encyclopaedia Britannica.      
Jeff Wallenfeldt
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
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•History

Robert Gould Shaw (born October 10, 1837, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.—died July 18, 1863, Fort Wagner, near Charleston, South Carolina) was a Union army officer who commanded a prominent regiment of African American troops during the American Civil War. Shaw was born into an immensely wealthy Boston family. His merchant father retired from business to take up translating literature and moved his family to West Roxbury, Massachusetts, near the utopian community Brook Farm, with whose famous...

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