Books like Blue-Eyed Child Of Fortune by Robert Gould Shaw

Robert Gould Shaw’s collection of nearly two hundred letters offers an intimate portrait of the young colonel who led the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, one of the United States’ first black regiments. Drafted during the Civil War, the letters reveal Shaw’s upbringing as the son of wealthy Boston abolitionists who did not consider himself an abolitionist, his reluctant acceptance of the command, and his evolving respect for his troops’ bravery. Shaw’s correspondence documents the regiment’s training in Readville, the harrowing charges at Antietam and Cedar Mountain, and ultimately the ill‑fated assault on Fort Wagner in Charleston Harbor, where he was killed. The volume includes restored passages from earlier private publications, detailed explanatory notes, and a biographical essay placing Shaw’s life and service within the broader context of the Civil War and African American participation.

First publish date: 1992