21. Colonel Shaw was buried with his men, an intended insult by the Confederates
During the American Civil War is was customary for the bodies of officers killed in battle to be returned to the other side for burial. Where circumstances rendered the courtesy impractical, they were buried with full military honors, their personal effects preserved, and the location of the grave made known. The Confederates made no such gesture in the burial of Robert Gould Shaw, he was consigned, without ceremony, to the same common grave shared with the men of the 54th who had fallen. The event was reported in Southern newspapers, including the widely read Charleston Mercury, as a fate befitting a man who dared to lead black troops against the South.
The bodies of officers commanding and leading white troops at Fort Wagner were all returned and Confederate General Johnson Hagood informed Union commanders that Shaw had been killed, but that his body would not be returned. Numerous efforts by Northerners to recover Shaw’s body were stopped by his father, Francis Shaw, who announced that he was proud that his son was buried with the men he had led. Shaw wrote the 54th‘s regimental surgeon that he could “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!”