
Side view of the Robert Gould Shaw Monument by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. This relief monument built in 1897 in honor of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment is considered by many to be among the best sculptural works of the 19th century.
The 54th was the first all-Black regiment recruited in the North to fight for the Union army during the Civil War. The monument is part of the Boston Black Heritage Trail. A famous composition by Charles Ives, "
Col. Shaw and his Colored Regiment," the opening movement of Three Places in New England, is based both on this monument and the regiment.
Below is a picture I took last year: