Explanation: In the US Civil War, Colonel Robert Shaw, a white man, accepted the command of the first Black unit of the US Army. He died leading an assault on Confederate fortifications in 1863. Most of his unit survived, and despite the failure of the attack, it galvanized Union support for Black troops in the Civil War, due to the bravery and determination shown by the unit during the attack.
The Confederates buried him in a mass grave with the soldiers he led, seeing it as an insult. Colonel Shaw’s father rebuffed any attempt to exhume Colonel Shaw’s body and bury it separately from the Black troops he led, seeing it as emblematic of the collective sacrifice and unity that the Colonel had fought to uphold in life.
Did they go through the effort to exhume any of those Black soldiers’ corpses for next-of-kin? Seems like those Union soldiers agreed with the Confederates, that he shouldn’t be buried alongside Black men.
It feels a bit bitter that even the “allies” you’re fighting alongside only seem to disagree with your enemies about degrees, not content.
Explanation: In the US Civil War, Colonel Robert Shaw, a white man, accepted the command of the first Black unit of the US Army. He died leading an assault on Confederate fortifications in 1863. Most of his unit survived, and despite the failure of the attack, it galvanized Union support for Black troops in the Civil War, due to the bravery and determination shown by the unit during the attack.
The Confederates buried him in a mass grave with the soldiers he led, seeing it as an insult. Colonel Shaw’s father rebuffed any attempt to exhume Colonel Shaw’s body and bury it separately from the Black troops he led, seeing it as emblematic of the collective sacrifice and unity that the Colonel had fought to uphold in life.
Did they go through the effort to exhume any of those Black soldiers’ corpses for next-of-kin? Seems like those Union soldiers agreed with the Confederates, that he shouldn’t be buried alongside Black men.
It feels a bit bitter that even the “allies” you’re fighting alongside only seem to disagree with your enemies about degrees, not content.