MEMORIAL DAY SERVICES.

The Memorial Day Services were held Sunday afternoon in Sanders Theatre under the auspices of the Harvard Memorial Society. After the opening prayer by the Rev. S. D. McConnell, D. D., and the singing of the Harvard Hymn by the Glee Club, Dr. Justin Winsor introduced Major Henry Lee Higginson, who delivered a most impressive address on Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Regiment.

In opening, Major Higginson spoke of the feeling of the country while, in the years before the war, it lay preparing for the struggle which in one way or another had to come. With the election of Lincoln, and the secession of one southern state after another, the country saw that the beginning of the end had come at last. Men went to the front not because they were called on or because they had to, but because it was the one thing they wanted to do.

Among the first regiments to march was the splendid 7th Regiment, the New York National Guard, in which Robert Shaw served as a private. "As it swung out from Union Square into Broadway it was greeted with a roar which lasted all the way to the Battery, where it embarked, and Robert Shaw, the flank man of his platoon, was seized and kissed by man after man as they marched down Broadway." He was young, graceful, and handsome; every one liked him, every one trusted him implicitly. He was neither sentimental nor ostentatious, and did his full share of the new and severe work.

Shaw was soon exchanged to the 2nd Massachusetts and promoted to lieutenancy. In this regiment he received his military schooling during two years of fighting in Virginia, and its honor was his honor.

When Governor Andrew received permission to fit out a negro regiment he asked Robert Shaw to be its colonel. The young officer, doubtful of his ability at first refused, but on being told by his commanding officer that he was fitted for the post accepted it. He knew that neither he nor his men would be treated as equals by friends or enemies but steadfastly did his duty. In February he took command of the regiment at Readville, on the 2d of May he was married, on the 28th he started for the front. On the 19th of July following an assault on Fort Wagner was ordered, and the lead was offered by Gen. Strong to Col. Shaw, who eagerly accepted it. The assault was made about sundown and succeeded for a short time, but the resistance was gallant and it was beaten back. Col. Shaw, two of his officers, and some of his men were killed on the ramparts, while many more were wounded. The 54th did their duty nobly during the remainder of the war and won their places as brave steady soldiers.

"Harvard students: Whenever you hear of Col. Shaw, or any officer, or of any man of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, salute him in the name of Harvard University and Harvard men."