Inspired by the movie "Glory", Andy's interest in the Civil War only deepened as he learned more about this man: Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts. His mother told me that they traveled up and down the eastern seaboard, walking the path that Shaw himself had taken. He died in the battle to take Battery Wagner, on Morris Island, South Carolina - an area now completely under water. A total of 1757 men were killed or wounded in the attack led by the young Col Shaw and the 54th on May 10th, 1863. Shaw was 25 years of age at the time of his death. 

(The difference between a 'fort' and a 'battery' is the enclosure of the fortification. While the 'fort' is enclosed on four sides, the 'battery' is enclosed on three sides. Wagner was therefore a 'battery', since it's fourth side faced the open waters.)

Sunny Mullarkey was Andy's freind who was also a reporter for the Beaufort High School article "Sidekicks", feautured in the Beaufort Gazette Newspaper.  Sunny conducted an interview with Andy and his mom upon Andy's nomination for the South Carolina Heroes Award in 1997.

Karen assures me that this portrait captured the subject completly. "Sunny was Andy's first girlfriend, and it looks just like her."