The filmmakers of Glory depict the 54th Massachusetts volunteer infantry from the point of view of its commanding officer, Robert Shaw. As shown in the film and from the reading materials, we know that the 54th regime was the first formal U.S. Army regime comprised only of African-American soldiers. After watching the film, we can infer that the filmmakers were interested in depicting the African-American Men from the public’s viewpoint. Rather than depicting the struggles within the African-American soldiers, film is more in line with how the other Northern soldiers and their communities disapprovingly dealt with the 54th Massachusetts volunteer infantry.
The filmmakers of Glory convince the viewer of their argument with numerous
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Also, Shaw requests shoes and socks from the quartermaster, but he gets denied until he finally forces the quartermaster to give the men new shoes and socks. Furthermore, all soldiers were guaranteed a monthly wage of $13, but the solders in the 54th regime learns that they will only receive a $10 monthly wage unlike other white soldiers. There are so many outside struggles depicted in the film, but the only consistent struggle within the infantry is the relationship between Trip and Thomas.
The film expands the knowledge of northern soldiers and their communities. During the Civil War, just like African-American soldiers depicted in the film, many white soldiers also had to be removed from their larger society (Mitchell, 2003: p.80). For example, Armies deliberately created distance between a soldier and his officers because officers were given legal sanction for their authority (Mitchell, 2003: p.81). This is shown in the film when Thomas tries to speak with Shaw. Although Thomas is a childhood friend, Shaw requires Thomas to use appropriate channels when he wants to speak with his commanding officer. Furthermore, in the last years of the Civil War, Northern soldiers demoralized Southern people by terrorizing Southern communities. (Mitchell, 2003: p.91). According to a Union officer during an Atlanta campaign, one Union officer said, “It is but right that these people should feel some of the hardships of war, they will better
The 54th Massachusetts Regiment was made up of brave African American men who volunteered to fight for freedom and rights alongside the north troops in protest over slavery. This unit was a very substantial move in the war, The presence of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment changed the outcome of the war. It showed the South that the Northerners truly saw African Americans as capable for fighting.
Private Trip found it unfair that all the white soldiers got new combat boots and the black soldiers did not. Therefore, he sneaks off the base to go find shoes. However, he ends up getting caught by Sgt. Maj. Mulcahy and this leads to a brutal whipping for the crime of desertion and makes the master and slave motif even more resonant (Fields & Zwick, 1989). As a result, Trip has a very big conflict with Robert Shaw because Robert gave Major Mulcahy permission to whip Trip. However, because of Trip action, Robert Shaw was forced to go to the quartermaster and get shoes and socks for his entire regiment. If it was not for Trip’s courageous act, the 54th regiment would have never had shoes for battle. Private Trip basically put his life on the line to make sure that the men in the 54th Regiment could have shoes for battles. This is a risk that not too many people would take for the better of
Their strong bond, perseverance, trust and leadership marks a turning point for the 54th Regiment which convinced Shaw to fight for his soldiers, to stand by their side and to be bold and determined that they will win. Although there was bloodshed and half of the men died in the battle, the sacrifice and bravery of the soldiers was not wasted because this initiated the Union to hire more black men as soldiers.
Throughout my research about the importance of African Americans in the American Civil War, I realized how our modern society underappreciates the involvement of African American soldiers in the Civil War. Although the involvement of African American soldiers in the American Civil War is depicted in various ways in multiple sources. The main difference is the amount and the thoroughness each source provides. However, what they do have in common is that during the Civil War, African Americans played a huge role in the victory of the Union. In an article by Thavolia Glymph, she quotes Henry L. Abbot about what it means to be an soldier in war. He wrote that the authority and symbol of a soldier is a gun, not a shovel. Despite the fact of being full-fledged soldiers, African American soldiers were often ignored and extremely mistreated by white soldiers. They were given menial tasks such as digging trenches and were constantly degraded by Union soldiers. They scarcely held guns, but rather held shovels and sent to noncombat labor As a result, African
Eventually, the treatment of African Americans that Harper so vehemently is against in her poem and Whitehead writes about in his novel sends the United States into a Civil War. Eleven southern states formed the Confederate States of America in which they fought a devastating four year war against the United States. The Civil War drastically changed the treatment of African Americans. The movie Glory is evidence of this. Glory is a civil war movie about the first African American regiment in the United States military. Their commander-Colonel Robert Gould Shaw- is white. The movie details the triumphs and hardships of the regiment, who at first seem to have trouble with one another and their commander, but grow to form a bond of camaraderie. The movie shows just how much hope the African American men have for their country because while they were in the army they were given no good reasons to feel as if they were Americans. They were mistreated by the white regiments and subject to worse conditions. The white men don't’ believe their capabilities, so they do not fight. Eventually their commander tells army officials , “ There's character. There's strength of heart. You should have seen us in action two days ago. We were a sight to see!” (Zwick). This leads the military to ask the regiment to lead a charge on Fort Wagner, a charge they know to be a death sentence. The most touching part of this scene is that these men are not one bit afraid to die for their country. Their
The Civil War was one of America’s most brutal battles in history. Majority of which being white, male soldiers. Over the years, many historians have argued the actual involvement of blacks during the civil war era. Many claiming that they were doing nothing more than assisting the actual, white soldiers in combat such as, nurses, and wagon drivers, not actually picking up the gun and shooting alongside in battle. Most people look over the fact that almost ten percent, or 180,000, of the Union army were African American. Though a small fraction of the amount of total soldiers during the war, their involvement is still significant. These soldiers recruited and voluntarily, committing the same acts of bravery of any Caucasian solider, due to the prejudice against them, they were pushed to the back burner and treated with disrespect, virtually diminishing their extensive courageous acts. Nevertheless these soldiers made an impact in world changing war.
When the 54th is marching south, they run into a regiment of white soldiers, and a quarrel breaks out between Private Trip and some of the white men. Rawlins steps in to stop the fight and one of the white men is about to be disciplined, but Rawlins says that there is no need. This scene is displays the harsh criticism the 5th received, even from their own side, but it also gives a halo effect to Rawlins, who could have easily said nothing, and watched the soldier get punished. Later on down the road the 54th meets up with Colonel James Montgomery, the colonel of another all black regiment. In the movie Montgomery was a racist and didn’t discipline his men at all. While the real Montgomery was noted to have discipline issues, the movie probably took it way out of hand, Montgomery even shoots one of his men for misbehaving. Montgomery later takes the 54th “to see some action”, which actually meant looting and setting fire to a town of innocents. In the movie, Montgomery threatens Shaw to set fire to the town by saying he’ll take command of the 54th if he doesn’t follow orders, so Shaw reluctantly orders the town to be burned. Shaw writes of this event in his letters, stating “the civilian population of women and children were fired upon, forced from their homes, their possessions looted, and the town burned.” Shaw also noted, "On the way up, Montgomery threw several shells
The Union military and naval effort to capture Charleston failed in 1863, So did the assault on Fort Wagner led by the 54th which most of them died in the attack. On may 1863 the 54 completed their training and marched through boston to embark for the front. The 54th was not the first black regiment organized or the first to see combat. The War Department quietly allowed the Union commanders occupy portions of the lower Mississippi valley and other places to begin organizing black regiments in the fall of 1862. Four of the regiments fought in battle with the vicksburg campaign during May and June 1863, but these events had received a little publicity in the Northern press. The White officers of the 54th represented of New Charges gland society like shaw were the combat veterans of white regiments during the first two years of the war. Glory does not go into detail about the impact the battle of Fort Wagner had on the Northern like it does not mention the draft
During the cold war, the Confederate soldiers endured a lot of hardships. The course of the Civil War had taken its toll of the Southern soldiers, who were facing rough times both at home and at the front. A major characteristic of the war in the South was the lack of adequate clothing and food, and poor pay or lack thereof. The soldiers had to brave all these wants and still seek to stay motivated to the course to which they had enlisted. Naturally, such hardships would drive any man to the brink of helplessness and hopelessness. Furthermore, there were reports of internal divisions within the ranks of the Confederacy. The hardships, trials, and deaths of fellow soldiers were among the reasons that made the soldiers be hugely driven out
Glory is the story of Civil War Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, who leads the war's first all-black volunteer regiment the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry into battles and discovers along the way he has to confront the moral question of racial prejudice inside and outside of his regimen. Colonel Shaw was the commander of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, also known as the Massachusetts “Fighting” Fifty-fourth, which was a position he has been thrown into and felt that he may not be fit for the job. At first Shaw was a little cowardly, during the battle, bomb fragments almost hit him and he passed out. He later seems guilty and not very motivated, but with the help of his friend Forbes and some time, Shaw turns himself into the leader that his men need. At the end Colonel Shaw’s courage shows when he volunteers to be the leading regiment in the assault on Fort Wagner and then during battle he forges on when the battle seems to a lost cause.
The Civil War, a period of four years in the United States filled with bloody combat, thousands of casualties, and the destruction of much of Southern infrastructure. Although the Civil War had various causes (economy, politics, etc.), it mainly originated from the pressing issue of slavery at the time, mainly its expansion into the Western territories. As we all know, slavery was one of the most horrific times in our nation’s history, yet it was a typical and normal thing for the people of the 19th century. The film, Glory (1989), directed by Edward Zwick, doesn’t necessarily depict the horrors of slavery, however it does show 19th century America’s attitude toward African Americans, as well as the average African American’s hunger for
The film Glory by Edward Zwick is one of the most well-known films of all time. The film itself is solely based upon the first formal unit of the Union Army during the American Civil War which consist of all African American men. They were essentially the very first unit of United States Colored Troops. They were formally known for their courageous attempts to and actions at Fort Wagner in 1863. The film is set in many different locations such as New York, Maryland, South Carolina and Massachusetts. In each of these different locations events took place that shaped our history. For example on November twenty seventh of 1862 Robert Shaw started to train soldiers. July eighteenth 1863 the Colonel Shaw and his troops attempted to take Fort Wagner, which didn’t succeed.
The movie, Glory, tells a story of the 54th regiment of Massachusetts journey in the Civil War. The 54th regiment was the first group of freed African Americans who volunteered to fight in the Union army. The film describes the journey of these brave men as they face prejudice to fight in the Union army and how they sacrificed their lives to fight for the cause of freedom. The film captures the heroic acts of the 54th regiment of black soldiers and their leader Colonel Robert Shaw.
One of the most prominent armies of the civil war the Army of Northern Virginia is one of the most commonly analyzed aspects of the confederacy. In J. Tracy Power’s Lee’s Miserables, Power evaluates the mindset of the soldiers by following their correspondence to family members as well as their use of diaries. The book is designed to demonstrate the psychological changes of the soldiers from The Battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania to the eventual surrender of the army at Appomattox. Power effectively describes the spectrum of physiological states exhibited by the soldier while maintaining a theme of respect for the generalship of Robert E. Lee. While the work exhibits countless examples that become repetitive, the sentiments of the
After his father was attcked by an allegator, and feared he thought Thrasher was a coward to not defend him, he takes the risk and joins the Confederate Army. He wanted to experience “the honors of war”. As he is lined up with the rest of