![]() ![]() It refers to the point on the blade where the sword achieves a perfect balance. ![]() ![]() stands for Point Of Balance, this is measured in inches from the hilt down the blade. William Harvey Carney picking up the American flag as the unit flagbearer fell dead was immortalized in paintings and songs he was awarded the Medal of Honor for it.P.O.B. Though the Union Army and the 54th Massachusetts didn't capture Fort Wagner, the bravery of the men of the unit during the fighting became the stuff of legend. "Because it represents not just Robert Gould Shaw, but it represents the aspirations, the dreams, the hopes and the sacrifices of all the men in the regiment." "For me, it's more the symbol that the sword is, rather than the object itself," Bentley told NPR. The family decided to donate it to the Massachusetts Historical Society. The descendents of the Shaw family found it - engraved with an American flag, along with the initials "RGS" - among other swords in the attic. When he died, his daughter, Mary Wood Minturn, found it while cleaning out her parents' attic. It was sent to Boston and given to Shaw's sister Susanna, who gave it to her great-grandson. When he learned that they had, Paine sent them to retrieve the sword. Having a contingent of Black soldiers in his camp, he asked whether any of them had been in the 54th Massachusetts. Charles Jackson Paine, whose forces were occupying Goldsboro, North Carolina, learned that the sword was in a house nearby. Historians speculate that a Confederate soldier took it and sold it to an officer. So when the sword disappeared from the battlefield at Fort Wagner, it was a devastating loss for the family. ![]()
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