Grade Level: 5–8
Students will be introduced to the first African American Regiment that fought in the Civil War through a memorial sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. They will compare and contrast the experiences of these soldiers through their portrayal in letters, films (the motion picture, Glory, and a documentary film), and poetry, before writing their own poem using the sculpture as their inspiration.
Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth Regiment, 1900
patinated plaster, 419.1 x 524.5 x 109.2 cm (165 x 206 1/2 x 43 in.)
U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, Cornish, New Hampshire
|5-A||Students compare multiple purposes for creating works of art.|
|6-A||Students compare the characteristics of works in two or more art forms that share similar subject matter, historical periods, or cultural context.|
|6-B||Students describe ways in which the principles and subject matter of other disciplines taught in the school are interrelated with the visual arts.|
What was one of the issues that started the Civil War? Why were abolitionists against slavery?
At the beginning of the Civil War, Richard Harvey Cain, a student at Wilberforce University in Ohio, was among a group of black students who attempted to join the Union Army in Ohio. Cain was turned down. Below he writes about the events after the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter and the importance of the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth Regiment, the first black troop to be organized in the North during the Civil War.
I shall never forget the thrill that ran through my soul when I thought of the coming consequences of that shot. There were one hundred and fifteen of us students at the University, who, anxious to vindicate the stars and stripes, made up a company and offered our services to the Governor of Ohio; and sir, we were told that this is a white man’s war and that the Negro had nothing to do with it. Sir, we returned, docile, patient, waiting, casting our eyes to the Heavens whence help always comes. We knew that there would come a period in the history of this nation when our strong black arms would be needed. We waited patiently; we waited until Massachusetts, through her noble Governor, sounded the alarm, and we hastened to hear the summons and obey it.
As the United States grew in population and area in the 1800s, the issues of slavery and state’s rights increasingly divided the country. While factories in the North were drawing people from farms to towns and cities, at midcentury, the economy in the South remained tied to agriculture. Of the eleven million people living in the South in 1860, nearly four million were slaves, and most worked on farms. Abolitionists wanted to end slavery, but many people in the South believed in the states’ right to decide this issue. Slavery and its spread to the western frontier became two of the most argued issues in the country.
In late 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union, quickly followed by other southern states. Together they formed the Confederate States of America. When Confederate forces fired on the U.S. Army’s Fort Sumter in South Carolina on April 12, 1861, the Civil War began.
As the war progressed, many black men decided to form their own regiments to fight for the Union. In 1862 Congress agreed to their enlistment and more than 186,000 African-American men signed up. They were not paid as much as white soldiers or were not paid at all, were given poor equipment, and often ran out of supplies. To make matters worse, Confederate soldiers threatened to enslave or kill any black soldiers they captured, and kill their white commanders. Overcoming these hardships, black soldiers proved themselves heroically in battle. They led raids, served as spies and scouts, fought in battles, and faced some of the worst confrontations in the war. They helped win the war for the Union.
The Massachusetts Fifty-fourth Regiment, the first African-American troop in the North, began recruitment in February 1863, one month after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The recruits came from twenty-four states; one-quarter of them slave states. Among the recruits were barbers, boatmen, laborers, cabinetmakers, a dentist, and a druggist. Some were as young as sixteen. Some were fathers enlisting with sons. Members of the regiment included Frederick Douglass’ two sons, the grandson of abolitionist Sojourner Truth, and William H. Carney, the first African American to win the Medal of Honor. Robert Gould Shaw, the white son of prominent Boston abolitionists, was appointed to command the regiment, as military policy did not allow black men to serve as officers.
On May 28, the largest crowd in Boston’s history assembled to see the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment march off to fight. Two months later, Shaw and one-third of his men died during the Union’s siege at Fort Wagner, one of the forts protecting Charleston, South Carolina, a bastion of the Confederacy. The brave conduct of this regiment inspired black men like Richard Harvey Cain to enlist in the Union forces.
After the battle of Fort Wagner, proposals were made by men of the Fifty-fourth to erect a memorial. Sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens took almost a dozen years to create it. He began with the idea of an equestrian statue of the young Colonel Shaw. The plan evolved into a procession of black soldiers with their leader, moving together toward the goal of emancipation. The monument is cast in very high relief. To make each soldier individualized, Saint-Gaudens created forty heads using live models of different ages. Seen in profile are the mounted Colonel Shaw and rows of soldiers carrying rifles, packs, and canteens, all led by young drummer boys. Above the procession floats an angel holding an olive branch, symbolizing peace, and poppies, symbolizing death.
Show students the motion picture Glory followed by a showing of any one of the historical documentaries related to the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth Regiment. As students watch, they should take notes that answer the following questions:
Provide students with copies of four of the thirty or more poems that have been written about the memorial. Recommended poems are:
Tell the students that these poems were inspired by both the Saint-Gaudens monument and the story of the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth Regiment. Students should be aware of the time period when these poems were written. Have four students volunteer to read the poem aloud while others follow along. After the listening/reading exercise ask students the following questions:
Then students will write their own poems about the sculpture, Shaw, or the Regiment.
Download an Art in the Classroom poster about the Shaw Memorial by Augustus Saint-Gaudens (PDF 685kb)
Download images related to the Shaw Memorial
Studio Lesson: Interpreting Photographs (Download PDF, 66kb)
Curriculum Connections to the Shaw Memorial (Download PDF, 877kb)
Learn more about the first African American infantry unit in this teaching packet
Borrow the teaching packet Art&
Learn more about the American Civil War
Visit the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site
Search the Libray of Congress’s collection of Civil War photographs
View the National Archives records of the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth Regiment