To Gain That Which He Cannot Lose

     Robert Gould Shaw was a singular man, even for his time. At 23 he attained a singular honor. The Governor of Massachusetts nominated him to the high rank of Colonel of the 54^th Massachusetts (Black) Regiment.

    The “54^th” was an experiment, as black troops were just being inducted into the Yankee Army. Less than a thousand miles south of Colonel Shaw’s home state, Negroes picked cotton, and bent low beneath the whip.

      All Negro troops, during that great Civil War, were led by white men. Colonel Shaw set the standard for all who would follow. He knew he was singular, and he wondered in his letters home, if “I will amount to very much,” and “if I’ll end my days leading a group of renegade Negroes.”

      Robert was put to the test, a test that comes to all who bear the sword in wrath.

     We see him as he prepares for battle. He rides gracefully down the beach, and ultimately, dismounts his trusty steed. Our hero steps into the briny foam, and looks wistfully across the steel gray waves. Sea gulls and Snipes flutter gracefully in the cool air. The sky is graced by a few cirrus clouds, but is otherwise blue and beautiful.

     Somehow, we know what he is thinking. It is an almost intuitive thing. His solemnly reflects on his childhood, and the countless hours he spent on just such a beach as this one. And in his young eyes, you see a yearning for those “good old days;” to be a child again, to go back for a few moments, to see his parents just one more time. But he has grown up things to do.

    And our young Colonel turns from the tranquil scene, and sets his eyes on the task at hand. Young Robert will lead a thousand troops into infamy that day. His is an impossible task. A well-entrenched Rebel Army controls a strategic post just down the beach; Fort Wagner.

    Well reader, a fairy tale ending would have had Colonel Shaw rushing the fort, fighting a terrific battle, and in the end, winning the day. I cannot tell you it happened that way.

     There is no shame in the way our hero fought that day. Oh, the strength and determination of that young lad. But young Robert fell, climbing the steep walls of Fort Wagner. The enemy rudely dumped his body into the same trench that contained many of his fallen black troops.

     Someone once reflected, “He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep, to gain that which he cannot lose.” (Jim Elliot.)

 By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "Unconventional Devotions" Copyright 2005