Focus on Robert Gould Shaw Memorial and explore the Dedications and inscriptions.
The work was dedicated by philosopher William James of Harvard:There they march, warm-blooded champions of a better day for man. There on horseback among them, in his very habit as he lived, sits the blue-eyed child of fortune, upon whose happy youth every divinity had smiled.
A Latin inscription on the relief reads OMNIA RELINQVIT / SERVARE REMPVBLICAM  ("He left behind everything to save the Republic").
The pedestal below carries lines from James Russell Lowell's poem "Memoriae Positum":Right in the van of the red rampart's slipperyswell with heart that beat a charge he fellfoeward as fits a man: but the high soul burnson to light men's feet where death for nobleends makes dying sweet.
On the rear are words by Charles W. Eliot, president of Harvard University:The White Officers taking life and honor in their hands cast in their lot with men of a despised race unproven in war and risked death as inciters of servile insurrection if taken prisoners besides encountering all the common perils of camp march and battle. The Black rank and file volunteered when disaster clouded the Union Cause. Served without pay for eighteen months till given that of white troops. Faced threatened enslavement if captured. Were brave in action. Patient under heavy and dangerous labors. And cheerful amid hardships and privations. Together they gave to the Nation and the World undying proof that Americans of African descent possess the pride, courage and devotion of the patriot soldier. One hundred and eighty thousand such Americans enlisted under the Union Flag in MDCCCLXIII–MDCCCLXV. [1863-1865]
A plaster cast, which was exhibited at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, is displayed at the National Gallery of Art, on loan by the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, Cornish, New Hampshire. The inscription running along the bottom of this plaster cast incorrectly states that the assault on Fort Wagner and Shaw's death in 1863 occurred "JULY TWENTY THIRD," five days later than the historic events.
National Gallery of Art Harvard University Fort Wagner Cornish, New Hampshire Charles W. Eliot William James Pan-American Exposition James Russell Lowell left