Glory

    The movie Glory is a portrayal of the 54th Massachusetts infantry regiment in the Civil War. This group of men was never meant to be great. They were never meant to see combat. They were just a bunch of former slaves and freemen who believed in the cause that the North was fighting for. They were led by a man who, in his first battle was too afraid to get up after being clipped in the neck by shrapnel. They were never destined to be glorious, they weren't even supposed to get uniforms, but throughout the movie the men of the 54th Massachusetts showed everyone how much they could really bring to the table. Their story wasn't as easy as it sounds though. Even in the armies of the North A regiment of colored soldiers wasn't exactly popular. They were still not given the treatment of whites. They weren't given uniforms until the quartermaster was hounded by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the leader of the regiment, who demanded that his men be given everything a white soldier be given because the Union is fighting for that very thing, even if the regiment was a publicity stunt by the higher ups in the army, they should still be treated like soldiers.

    The movie showed all the aspects of what the men went though being a black soldier in the white mans army. They showed the struggles of not having shoes that fit your feet, having white people who you thought were your friends become your superiors and treat you like everyone else, having to learn how to fight in a white mans war when you have learned nothing like that your whole life. They also had to face the facts that the other side would kill them if they were caught. The southern rebels would take no prisoners in a fight with black troops. Even if they weren't killed they would be returned to slavery. These men wouldn't back down from a threat like this. They would have been granted full discharge if they left after hearing all of this, but instead nearly all the men stayed because they knew a threat like this was not scary to them. No man wants to be in chains, but these men especially knew they were never going back. To them, death was better than bondage.

    The officers of these regiments would have faced a similar fate if they were to be seen leading these troops. White officers seen commanding black troops would have been put to death. So everyone knew the  risks of being a part of or leading this regiment. The white men who lead this regiment were learning the risks that these black men took, they became better men leading this regiment. They also grew to understand the hardships of being a black man fighting the white mans war. They knew these men were putting their lives on the line and they believed that they owed these men their lives as well. They still knew that they would never be able to understand the hardships and struggles that these men had to face and will have to face forever so they knew they owed them more than just a thanks.

    Glory was, what I believe to be, a great movie. I was moved by the story of these men and their bravery and their strength in the face of all the obstacles placed in front of them. They changed a lot of things for black men around the country by showing them that a black soldier was just as good if not better than a white one. The ending of the movie when the 54th Massachusetts led the charge on  Fort Wagner was the perfect ending to a movie about togetherness and inclusion. Showing that all different types of men gave their lives for this country and its values and white and black men die all the same. 

    Glory was movie that made a viewer fall in love with the men and their story of courage. I loved the story of these men and the story of Colonel Shaw. The coming of age story for a scared and cowering soldier at the battle of Antietam, Maryland, to the great Colonel Robert Gould Shaw of the 54th Massachusetts infantry but more importantly the Colonel of a brave, courageous, and high class group of black men who became great black soldiers. His story showed how seeing these men grow together knowing the risks, turned him into a man of great honor. He fought for these men when nobody else would and he treated them like soldiers instead of slaves. He became the man he was afraid he couldn't be. In an earlier letter to his mother Colonel Shaw said that he was afraid he was not the man to lead these troops because he didn't understand them, but once he did understand them he became that man that he was afraid he couldn't become. That was the man who led the  54th Massachusetts Regiment Volunteer Infantry to Glory.

Image courtesy of Historicallythinking.org