Glory

Glory, a 1989 movie about the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, a regiment of black soldiers, around half of whom were killed in a Union attack on Charleston's Fort Wagner in 1863, won praise as a serious movie about the U.S. Civil War and earned criticism for its failure to present the 54th with historical accuracy. Although the screenplay is based in large part on the letters of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the white commander of the regiment, Glory is most significant as a historically symbolic movie that recaptured a forgotten moment in American history and awakened new interest in the role of African Americans in the Civil War.

By the time the Civil War ended, African Americans comprised 10 percent of the total Union forces. The 54th was among the first African American fighting units. The unit's volunteers included some with well-known connections: one of its officers was Garth Wilkinson James, younger brother of philosopher William James and novelist Henry James; and Lewis H. Douglass, son of the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass, was one of the earliest enlistees. The 54th proved a disciplined, courageous group, particularly in the attack on Fort Wagner, at the mouth of Charleston Bay, on July 18, 1863.

Kevin Jarre based the screenplay for Glory on the letters of Shaw and on two modern works: One Gallant Rush (1965) by Peter Burchard, also based on Shaw's letters; and “Lay This Laurel,” (1973), Lincoln Kirstein's essay on the regiment and the Boston Common memorial monument sculpted by Augustus Saint-Gaudens in 1897. Shaw is the central figure in all these sources. Saint-Gaudens's monument shows Shaw on horseback with rows of unidentified African American soldiers marching with him. William James at the dedication of the memorial paid tribute to Shaw and his “nameless comrades” who perished with him in the assault on Fort Wagner, but names of the African American casualties at Fort Wagner were readily available. Survivors of the assault who marched in the dedicatory procession certainly could have provided some of the names.

It is hardly surprising then that Jarre repeats this focus, as can be seen in Matthew Broderick, who plays Shaw in the movie, receiving top billing. Some critics accused Edward Zwick, who directed the Tri-Star movie, of unconscious racism, in a glorification of Shaw that was sometimes at odds with historical accounts. Shaw's letters reveal that he was not free of the racist attitudes prevalent in 19th-century America. Such incidents as Shaw's sending his personal physician to attend private Trip after a flogging and Shaw's tearing up his pay voucher to protest the inferior pay of his troops are examples of the dramatic license taken in the film.

Critics were also quick to point out inaccuracies in Glory‘s characterization of the African American volunteers who made up the 54th. Rather than the nameless cast of foot soldiers in the Saint-Gaudens sculpture or a selection of [Page 970]historically accurate African American soldiers, Jarre uses four fictional characters to represent all the 168,000 African Americans who fought in the Civil War. Of the four men the script highlights, three are former slaves, whereas in the real 54th, four-fifths of the African Americans had been free men all their lives. But the four actors in the movie are cast in roles that represent the full spectrum of African American types who fought for the Union, and the consensus is that they do so without descending into stereotypes.

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