Colonel Robert Gould Shaw's Fate
At the end of the Glory, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw's body is thrown into a mass grave along with other black soldiers. Normally, officers would be buried formally, but the Confederates had such contempt for black regiments that they were accompanied by regular soldiers and were not given any honors. After the war, Shaw's parents visited the site of Fort Wagner in South Carolina.
When asked if they wanted to exhume his son's body to take to Boston for burial, they declined. "We would not have his body removed from where it lies, surrounded by his brave and devoted soldiers," explained Shaw's father, Francis George Shaw. "We can imagine no holier place than that in which he lies, among his brave and devoted followers, nor wish for him better company. What a bodyguard he has!