Robert Gould Shaw

More than a year had passed since the firing on Fort Sumter, and still the Union armies had scored no victories over their Confederate opponents. Washington politicians and Northern citizens were not the only ones grumbling about the national army—many officers, in private, expressed the belief that the troops were being led by incompetents.

In a letter home to his mother, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the commander of the war's most famous black regiment, the 54th Massachusetts, expresses his disgust with Congress and the President, whose interference in army training and discipline is prolonging the end of the war, at a great cost to time, life, and money.

Washington, Va.
July 23, 1862
Dear Mother,

As I mentioned in a short note to Father day before yesterday, I have received several letters from home since we arrived here. Yesterday...