The Final Draft of *A Glorious Fate* Is Off To the Publisher

After five years of research and writing, A Glorious Fate: The Life and Legacy of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw is off to the publisher. Reaching this goal is still both an exhilarating and horrifying experience. On the one hand, it certainly feels like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders, but it also comes with the realization that real people will soon have a chance to read it and judge it for themselves.

There is a lot of emotion attached to the completion of this particular project. It’s been an incredibly challenging year on a number of fronts. My father unexpectedly passed away in December of last year. It’s going to be difficult not being able to celebrate the publication of this book without him.

And in July of last year we lost historian Peter Carmichael. Shortly after Pete’s passing I made the decision to dedicate the book to him. Here is what I wrote at the end of the Acknowledgments section:

This book is dedicated to my friend, mentor, and fellow historian Peter S. Carmichael, whom we lost tragically in July 2024. I cannot recall when our paths first crossed, but from our earliest encounters Pete championed my work with characteristic generosity. He pushed me to submit manuscripts for publication, encouraged me to present at academic conferences, and solicited the proposal that became my first book with the University Press of Kentucky. Year after year, he invited me to join the Civil War Institute’s summer conference faculty, creating opportunities that shaped my career. I will treasure my memories of walking battlefields with Pete and our countless conversations about Civil War history. He possessed a relentless curiosity and intellectual energy that transformed every discussion into an adventure of discovery. Pete challenged me, as he did all his students and colleagues, to step outside comfortable assumptions and consider new perspectives and questions. His enthusiasm was infectious. He made everyone in the room want to work harder and think more carefully about our obligations as historians. Pete embodied what it means to be a faithful caretaker of the past. He understood that history belongs not to scholars but to all who seek to understand how we became who we are. I would like to think that a small spark of Pete’s passion for history lives on in these pages.

As for the book itself, here is a rundown of some vital stats:

• 390 ms. pages

• 106,104 words

• 12 chapters + epilogue

• 25 illustrations

I am still processing my thoughts and feelings about the subject of my book. A good biography should give the reader some sense of its subject’s inner life, family, community, and the broader world he occupied. I did the best I could for Robert Gould Shaw, but in the end there is a gaping hole in the form of a life cut short. That should come as no surprise as it is true for all of the brave men and women, whose young lives have been cut short by war.

In Shaw’s case, however, it is a bit more complicated. One of the narratives that I tried to push back on is the idea that his life came to a fitting and meaningful conclusion when he was killed while leading the 54th Massachusetts in its assault on Fort Wagner—a destiny fulfilled. You see this in a good deal of popular memory centered around Shaw, especially the movie Glory, which ends with Shaw being dumped into a mass grave with his Black soldiers, followed by the image of Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s beautiful memorial on the Boston Common.

Glory (1989)

In sharp contrast, I got to to the end of my own research and writing thinking that here was a young man, who was just beginning to find himself. Of course, you will have to judge all of this for yourself.

My writing here at Civil War Memory is inextricably tied to all of my books and other projects. It is impossible for me to imagine having any opportunity to write for publication had it not been for my decision to start blogging twenty years ago in November 2005.

As with my previous books, many of the ideas that I have explored first found an audience on the blog. Your engagement, encouragement, and especially your feedback continue to play a vital role in fueling my curiosity and intellectual engagement. I am incredibly grateful and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

There is still work to be done reviewing copy edits, page proofs and constructing the dreaded index, but if all goes well the book should be in your hands by September 2026. Forward!