Robert Gould Shaw

“Forward, Fifty-fourth, forward!”

“We fight for men and women whose poetry is not yet written, but which will presently be as enviable and as renowned as any.”

“I want to wipe out the impression that the men of the North are mercenary adventurers... but that they are thinking men who have convictions for which they are willing to lay down their lives.”

“I shall feel that I am fighting in a holy cause, and may at last die happy.”

“I feel that the black man has not an equal chance with the white.”

“I am convinced that the wisest and best thing for the Negro is to have his own military organization.”

“In this regiment, I am intending to fight, and not to occupy garrisons.”

“Death has no terrors for me. I shall be ready for it when it comes.”