Colonel Shaw and his regiment were remembered almost thirty-five years later in a monument of enormous emotional power and artistry, unveiled on the Boston Common on Memorial Day, 1897. Its sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, had taken more than a dozen years to create it. His work started off with the idea of a single equestrian statue of the young Colonel Shaw, following a long tradition in military statuary. Soon, however, it became a procession of black soldiers and their white leader, moving together toward the goal of emancipation.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Shaw Memorial, 1897, bronze relief, Boston, photograph by Jeffrey Nintzel