African-American Civil War Memorial Washington, DC

Relatively new among the many monuments in DC, this memorial pays tribute to the 185,000 African-American soldiers who fought with Union troops during the Civil War. Appropriately, the memorial stands in the historic Shaw neighborhood, named after Robert Gould Shaw, the white colonel who led the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, a black regiment, in an ill-fated attack on the Confederates. The event was depicted in the movie "Glory." Across the street, a Visitors Center features a database for looking up ancestors' regiments and battle action.