The First African American Union Regiment In The Film Glory

The film Glory, gives the audiences the chance to witness the close relationship between two very different men: Private Thomas Searles and Private Silas Trip. Searles and Trip started out as men from different lifestyles who have an aversion towards one another. Trip constantly mocked Thomas for being different compared to the other black man. Trip kept on bothering Searles because he was jealous of his lifestyle. Trip was surprised that Thomas talked "as good as a white folk” (Fields & Zwick 1989). Their relationship takes a substantial turn on the battlefield when Trip is about to be killed and Thomas bravely jumps in to save him. They supported each other and ended up developing a brotherly bond through the movie. Together they put away

They said that though blacks should not be enslaved, they should not be equal to the white male. The army was extremely reluctant to commission black officers -- only one hundred gained commissions during the war. For example, Colonel Shaw was white. African American soldiers were also given less supplies and rations. In addition, they received inferior ammunition and weapons and absolutely no medical treatment on or off the battlefield. For example, the soldiers were not given shoes when they asked for them, until Colonel Shaw demanded them for his men. This greatly affected their ability to fight. With less to keep them warm or defend themselves, you are going to have more casualties. Black soldiers served in artillery and infantry and performed all noncombat support functions that sustain an army, digging trenches, hauling supplies, cooking food, tending to the wounded, and providing personal service.

Note: The Battle of Fort Wagner - exemplifies the greatest contributions of Black soldiers during the Civil War

Glory is a movie about the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, one of the first official all black units in the United States during the Civil War. It’s an inspirational story of how a young Union soldier, Robert Gould Shaw, is offered the chance to lead an army unit that will change not only his life, but the lives of many other Americans.

Black soldiers fought at Milliken's Bend, LA; Port Hudson, LA; Petersburg, VA; and Nashville, TN. At the battle on Fort Wagner the 54th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers lost half of their troop and two-thirds of the officers. Sixteen black solders were awarded with the Medal of Honor.

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

The 1st Kansas Colored's, which had held the center of the Union line, were able to advance their status, to within around fifty paces from the Confederate line, and they had exchanged gunfire for around twenty minutes, until the Confederates, had finally broke and ran. General James Blunt, of the Union, had wrote after the battle, "I had never seen such fighting as was done by the Negro regiment. The only question that the Negroes, will be able fight has been settled, and besides they make better soldiers in every other respect, than any of the troops, that I have ever had under my own command."

When Thomas hears of Shaw being appointed to lead the first regiment of colored men, he declares himself the first volunteer. Now, this seemed odd to me at the time because I was aware of his lack of military and labor experience, however, he was not doing it because he was a soldier, but because he wanted to be there to support his friend who has been good to him all this time. When he joins the regiment, he still sees himself and Colonel Shaw as friends, but he quickly learns of the dividing ranks in the military preventing his friendship with Colonel Shaw. Because of the ranks, Colonel Shaw forces himself and Major Forbes to cut the friendship ties with Thomas because Thomas is in fact enlisted and under them. This adjustment proves to be

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 fights at Fort Wagner and throughout the war increased the enlistment of blacks into the Union Army. Historians differ in the actual number of blacks in the Union Army. There are many discrepancies on the true number of African Americans in the Civil War. McPherson reported that by the end of the war approximately 190,000 blacks had served in the Union Army and Navy, while Wilson notes that there were 300,000 black soldiers and 166 regiments and Horton believed there was 250,000 black soldiers and sailors.

Hollandsworth also illustrates the unequal division of labor to suggest the discrimination of black soldiers by the white Union forces. Prevalent is the inequality of the division of duties amongst the white and black Union soldiers. (97) The black militias were subjected to fatigue duty while their white counterparts prepared themselves for battle. (97) Most of these duties consisted of ditch digging and preparing roads for the Union forces maneuvers. (97) Butler viewed the fatigue duty as natural tasks to black soldiers. (97)

Prejudice was also very evident towards African Americans in the Union forces in that they were usually assigned to labor duties, such as cleaning camps, building defenses and garrison duty, and in many cases not allowed to fight. Up until 1864, there was even a difference in pay for black soldiers, and they were not allowed to be commissioned officers.

I chose to review “Unit Four: Freedom, Black Soldiers, and the Union Military”. This unit focuses on the slave’s involvement in the war, and their desire to fight for their freedom. I chose this because while I can imagine a man’s desire to fight for his freedom, I was curious as to how well that assistance was accepted. War gave hope of freedom to even the most remote and illiterate slaves. All slaves had the sense that one of the primary outcomes of the war would be the relinquishment of slavery. Free blacks and escaped slaves believe that if they fought next to the white man for their freedom it would prove that they were equal and deserved the same citizenship. At the beginning of the war the laws didn’t allow for blacks to join the

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 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.