Shaw - 54th Regiment Memorial (Final Version) - Cornish, NH
Posted by: 
neoc1
N 43° 30.053 W 072° 22.111
18T E 712741 N 4819803
The final version of Augustus Saint-Gaudens masterpiece is installed at the Augustus Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, NH.
Waymark Code: WMHMAB
Location: New Hampshire, United States
Date Posted: 07/23/2013
Views: 4
If you, like millions of others, are impressed by Saint-Gaudens Shaw - 54th Regiment Memorial on the Boston Common then you will be astounded by the final version of this masterpiece installed at his historic home in Cornish, NH.
This magnificent 132" by 168" bronze high relief sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens shows Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and 16 members the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. Colonel Shaw sits on a horse and rides before a three deep rank and file of marching soldiers holding rifles over their shoulders. A drummer boy leads the group. Colonel Shaw is wearing his union uniform and holds a sword in his right hand. An allegorical female figure is shown above. She is holding a laurel or olive branch, and poppies. Next to her is the Latin phrase OMNIA RELINQVIT SEVARE REMPVBLICAM (He gives up everything to serve the republic).
A sign near this version explains its provenance. It reads:
SHAW MEMORIAL
Unveiled on Boston Common in 1897, the Shaw Memorial commemorates Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Regiment, the first unit of African American volunteers raised in the north during the Civil War. Saint-Gaudens began the sculpture in 1883, and worked fourteen years before it was completed.
Saint-Gaudens continued to refine the design even after the bronze was installed and in 1900 completed a final version in plaster. he added an inscription and made changes to the angel, horse and flags. In 1997, this bronze was cast by the trustees of the Saint-Gaudens Memorial. the original plaster is in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
The new version has the inscription:
ROBERT GOULD SHAW KILLED WHILE LEADING THE ASSAULT ON FORT WAGNER JULY TWENTY THIRD EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY THREE AUGUSTUS SAINT GAUDENS MDCCCLXXXXVIII