Captain Robert Gould Shaw to Francis G. Shaw, February 16, 1863

Boston, February 16, 1863.

I arrived here yesterday morning; things are going on very well and I think there is no doubt of our ultimate success.

We go into camp at Readville. We have a great deal of work before us. The pay is thirteen dollars per month, the same as white soldiers receive.

SOURCE: Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Editor, Harvard Memorial Biographies, Volume 2, p. 203

Capt. Robert Gould Shaw to Annie Kneeland Hagerty Shaw, February 8, 1863

February 8.

You know by this time, perhaps, that I have changed my mind about the black regiment. After father left, I began to think I had made a mistake in refusing Governor Andrew's offer.  . . .  Going for another three years is not nearly so bad a thing for a colonel as for a captain, as the former can much more easily get a furlough. Then after I have undertaken this work, I shall feel that what I have to do is to prove that a negro can be made a good soldier, and, that being established, it will not be a point of honor with me to see the war through, unless I really occupied a position of importance in the army. Hundreds of men might leave the army, you know, without injuring the service in the slightest degree

I am inclined to think that the undertaking will not meet with so much opposition as was at first supposed. All sensible men in the army, of all parties, after a little thought, say that it is the best thing that can be done; and surely those at home who are not brave or patriotic enough to enlist should not ridicule or throw obstacles in the way of men who are going to fight for them. There is a great prejudice against it, but now that it has become a government matter, that will probably wear away. At any rate, I sha'n't be frightened out of it by its unpopularity

I feel convinced I shall never regret having taken this step, as far as I myself am concerned; for while I was undecided I felt ashamed of myself, as if I were cowardly.

SOURCE: Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Editor, Harvard Memorial Biographies, Volume 2, p. 202-3

Captain Robert Gould Shaw to Annie Kneeland Haggerty Shaw, February 4, 1863 (Excerpt)

February 4.

Father has just left here. He came down yesterday, and brought me an offer from Governor Andrew of the colonelcy of his new black regiment . The Governor considers it a most important command, and I could not help feeling, from the tone of his letter, that he did me a great honor in offering it to me. My father will tell you some of the reasons why I thought I ought not to accept it. If I had taken it, it would only have been from a sense of duty, for it would have been anything but an agreeable task.

SOURCE: Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Editor, Harvard Memorial Biographies, Volume 2, p. 202

Governor John A. Andrew to Captain Robert Gould Shaw, January 30, 1863

commonwealth Of Massachusetts, Executive Department,

Boston, January 30, 1863.

Captain Robert G. Shaw,

Second Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.

Captain, — I am about to organize in Massachusetts a colored regiment as part of the volunteer quota of this State, — the commissioned officers to be white men. I have to-day written to your father, expressing to him my sense of the importance of this undertaking, and requesting him to forward to you this letter, in which I offer to you the commission of Colonel over it. The lieutenant-colonelcy I have offered to Captain Hallowell of the Twentieth Massachusetts Regiment. It is important to the organization of this regiment that I should receive your reply to this offer at the earliest day consistent with your ability to arrive at a deliberate conclusion on the subject.

Respectfully and very truly yours,

john A. Andrew,

Governor of Massachusetts.

SOURCE: Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Editor, Harvard Memorial Biographies, Volume 2, p. 201