Emilio, Luis F., History of the Fifty-Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry , 1863-1865

[99] Such disposal of the remains of an officer of Colonel Shaw's rank, when his friends were almost within call, was so unusual and cruel that there seemed good ground for the belief that the disposition made was so specially directed, as a premeditated indignity for having dared to lead colored troops. When known throughout the North, it excited general indignation, and fostered bitterness. Though recognizing the fitness of his resting-place, where in death he was not separated from the men he was in life not ashamed to lead, the act was universally condemned. It was even specifically stated in a letter which appeared in the ‘Army and Navy Journal,’ of New York City, written by Asst.-Surg. John T. Luck, U. S. N., who was captured while engaged in assisting our wounded during the morning of July 19, that Gen. Johnson Hagood, who had succeeded General Taliaferro in command of Battery Wagner that morning, was responsible for the deed. The following is extracted from that letter:—

‘. . . While being conducted into the fort, I saw Colonel Shaw of the Fifty-four Massachusetts (colored) Regiment lying dead upon the ground just outside the parapet. A stalwart negro man had fallen near him. The Rebels said the negro was a color sergeant. The colonel had been killed by a rifle-shot through the chest, though he had received other wounds. Brigadier-General Hagood, commanding the Rebel forces, said to me: “I knew Colonel Shaw before the war, and then esteemed him. Had he been in command of white troops, I should have given him an honorable burial; as it is, I shall bury him in the common trench with the negroes that fell with him.” The burial party were then at work; and no doubt Colonel Shaw was buried just beyond the ditch of the fort in the trench where ’