The movie Glory brought us to the time period of the. Civil War. We could see the horrors of the segregation from whites vs African Americans. The 54th regiment was the first African American infantry. They were never to see combat, and they were never meant to be given uniforms. They didn't have the same rights as the white man, even though they were all soldiers. Fighting for the same thing. A union, and the freedom of all slaves. hey weren't given shoes that fit their feet which blistered severely. How Colonel Robert Shaw found out about this is that when one of the men by the name of Trip was supposedly went awol, so Shaw ordered him to be flogged, just like the Confederates did when he was in slavery for there were scars all over his back from the previous times when he was a slave. But after the whipping Shaw found out that Trip was just trying to find a pair of shoes.
I thought to myself during these scenes "How are we better than they are. We whip them when they try to escape, they don't have the same rights the white soldiers had, THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE A PAIR OF SOCKS!" I think this was one of the worst times in history. It was just awful how people can treat others like they did. It really makes me wonder what humans are actually capable of.
A thousand black men volunteered, for they wanted to fight. For when they were given $10 wage instead of the normal $13 that the white soldier earns, the entire regiment tore up their vouches. Seeing this, Colonel Robert Shaw who was injured at Antietam, and accepted to be the leader of the first black regiment tore up his as well.
This part of the movie hit me for what I saw is right there and then is that the money didn't matter, they were going to fight against the Confederate rebels who sent that any black soldier captured who be executed. Any white officer who was leading is captured would be executed as well. But they didn't care, the 54th Massachusetts infantry would rather be killed than to go back to a life of chains and torture which would probably be a lot worse since they were fighting with the Union side of the war.
The 1,000 soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment was the first to charge at Fort Wagner. With new shoes on their feet and wearing the Union uniform, they walked down the line, and the white regiments cheered, raising their caps high in the air. The 54th Infantry formed up and charged. They charged through cannon blast and musket fire. they suffered severe losses and they kept charging down the beach. Shaw was killed, the 54th regiment's commanding officer and Trip raised the flag to rally the troops, but was also killed, and he would not let the flag touch the ground.
In the aftermath of the battle, Fort Wagner was never taken, and as the Confederate flag was waving in the air, the bodies of dead white and black soldiers was buried in a mass grave.
But it wasn't a defeat, for 30,000 African Americans joined the Union cause after being inspired by bravery and strength that 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment did, and with their help they led the Union to Glory. The 1,000 black soldiers broke their chains and were finally free of the brutality of slavery.
https://www.history.com/news/glory-regiment-attacks-fort-wagner-150-years-ago
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