They buried more in that sandy trench
              Than human eye could see.
            Aye, all the shames and sorrows
              Of more than a hundred years
            Lie under the weight of that southern soil
              Despite those cruel sneers.
            "They 'buried him with his niggers!'
              But the glorious souls set free
            Are leading the van of the army
              That fights for liberty.
            Brothers in death, in glory
              The same palm branches bear;
            And the Crown is as bright o'er the sable brows
              As over the golden hair."

               The Black Rank and File
  The visitor to Boston, Massachusetts, who loves liberty and
those who died for it, should not fail to see among its many
shrines in that city the monument erected in the honor and
memory of Colonel Robert Shaw (and his gallant regiment), on
one side of which is this inscription:
TO THE FIFTY-FOURTH                        of MASSACHUSETTS
      REGIMENT               (Shield)          INFANTRY
                 THE WHITE OFFICERS
   taking life and honor in their hands, cast in their lot with
                           men of
a despised race, unproved in war, and risked death as inciters
                             of
  servile insurrection if taken prisoners, besides encountering
    all the common perils of camp, march and battlefield
             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
                              25




			

OHS Archives/Library Pamphlet Collection

Progress of the Negro Race: Address at a Patriotic Race Service, Philadelphia