Robert Gould Shaw (October 10, 1837–July 18, 1863) was an American officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. As Colonel, he commanded the all-black 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, which entered the war in 1863. He was killed in the Second Battle of Fort Wagner, near Charleston, South Carolina.
He is the principal subject of the 1989 film Glory, where he is portrayed by Matthew Broderick.
Shaw was born in Boston to a prominent...
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Robert Gould Shaw (October 10, 1837–July 18, 1863) was an American officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. As Colonel, he commanded the all-black 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, which entered the war in 1863. He was killed in the Second Battle of Fort Wagner, near Charleston, South Carolina.
He is the principal subject of the 1989 film Glory, where he is portrayed by Matthew Broderick.
Shaw was born in Boston to a prominent abolitionist family. His parents were Francis George and Sarah Blake Sturgis Shaw. The family lived off an inheritance left by Shaw's merchant grandfather, also named Robert Gould Shaw (1776 – 1853). Shaw had four sisters: Anna, Josephine, Susannah and Ellen.
He moved with his family to a large estate in West Roxbury, adjacent to Brook Farm when he was five. In his teens, Shaw spent some years studying and traveling in Switzerland, Italy, Hanover, Norway, and Sweden. His family moved to Staten Island, New York, settling there among a...
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