Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune: The Civil War Letters of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw

CHAPTER TWELVE: "So Fine a Set of Men"

C H A P T E R I 2 The armiesof the North had begun the spring offensives that might end the war. In the West, Ulysses S. Grant advanced upon Vicksburg, the strongest Confederate position on the Mississippi River. In Virginia, the Army of the Potomac under "Fighting Joe" Hooker tried to outflank Robert E. Lee. But Lee frightened Hooker into taking the defensive when he moved out of Fredericksburg and met the Yankees near Chancellorsville. In the face of the 70,000-man enemy, Stonewall Jackson took 25,000 of Lee's 47,000 Rebels around Hooker's right and struck the Union army at dusk on May i. Jackson was fatally wounded, but Lee won the battle and made plans for another invasion of the North. Grant's assaultson Vicksburgfailed and he settled into siege operations. On May 13 at the Camp Meigs training facility near Boston, Shaw pinned on the silver eagles denoting his promotion to colonel. For ninety days he had busily instructed his men, met with hundreds of visitors who came to see the North's first black regiment, and spent what spare time he had courting fianceeAnnie Haggerty. Shawtook painsto ensure the fitness of his men, the approval of the visitors, and his marriageto Annie.The last he arranged only after his and Annie's parents backed away from their original objections. On May 2,, with the regiment fully manned at one thousand volunteers, Shaw exchanged vows with Annie and traveled by train to honeymoon at 315 o f i n e a s e t o f m e n S the Lenox cottage of her parents. Five days later he received a telegram that brought him back to Boston sooner than he wanted. The regiment had received orders to depart for the South. Readville [RGS] March 30,1863 Dear Father, Caraway should not havereceived apass. He was away on leave, and should have paid his own expenses.1 Wehave had four companies mustered in to-day. There is another one half full, and sixty men on their way from Buffalo. In a month I think we shall be full. Thank you for your answerto myquestion about our being married. There is no reason why it should interfere with my duties as an officer. I hope all the coloured people will be as sensible as Downing; I didn't know he had been here.2 The mustering-officer, who washere to-day, is aVirginian , and has always thought it was a great joke to try to make soldiers of "niggers"', but he told me to-day, that he had never mustered in so fine a set of men, though about twenty thousand had passed through his hands since September last. The sceptics need only come out here now, to be converted. I hope to find a letter from Mother when I go in town to-morrow afternoon . Give my love to her. Annie has not been well since she came here. In one way it has been very fortunate, for we have had several quiet evenings together. I don't know what her Mother will sayto our plan of being married before I go, but I hope shewill come into it. Your loving son, Robert G.Shaw i. Carawayis unidentified. Newport, Rhode Island. For adecade, 2,. Probably George Thomas Down- from 1856 to 1866, he advocated the ing (1819-1903), a prominent aboli- integration of Rhode Island's segregated tionist who graduated from Hamilton public-school system, something that College and worked hard to help fugitive happened in 1866. Logan and Winston, slaves ride the Underground Railroad. Dictionary ofAmerican Negro Biographyr , He owned a successful catering business p. 187. in New York City before moving it to 316 B L U E - E Y E D C H I L D OF F O R T U N E Readville [RGS] April i, 1863 Dear Mother, I received your letter last evening, and you must excuse me for saying, I didn't think your arguments very powerful. If I thought that being married were going to make me neglect my duty, I should think it much better never to have been engaged. As for Annie's going out with me, I don't think such a thing would ever enter my head. It is the last thing I should desire, as I have seen the evil consequences of it very...