Across from the State House  is the life-sized bronze bas-relief
plaque of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw designed by New England
sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Considered one of the best
American sculptures of the 19th century, it depicts the
commander of the first all-Black regiment to fight during the
Civil War, marching out of Boston  with his troops in March
1863. Two months later, Shaw and 271 of his men were killed
during a suicide mission on Fort Wagner in South Carolina,
galvanizing the country with the bravery of his Black soldiers.
(Later, his story was immortalized in the Academy Award–winning
1989 film Glory.) The sculpture is a surprisingly realistic
depiction of Shaw atop his horse, surrounded by soldiers
carrying rifles, backpacks, and bedrolls. Above them is an angel
with an olive branch, symbolizing peace, and poppies,
symbolizing death. The Shaw Memorial is the beginning of the
Black Heritage Trail, a lesser-known path that traces the
separate journey to freedom of Black Americans, nearly one