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Essay on Shaws' Rise to Glory in Video
The Union soldiers--dark-skinned, exhausted and bloody--drag themselves along as their officer, a young white man, rides behind, drained. They have been in a savage battle. It is a strange scene on this sunny Georgia day in April 1989 (Southgate, 1989). The 1989 Civil War epic, Rise to Glory follows the heroic exploits of an all-black Union regiment amid a climate of ruthless racial inequality, including that shown by the very army in which they served. The story takes place in Eastern United States. The main character is Robert Gould Shaw. The movie opens up with the Battle of Antietam where Shaw is fighting as a Captain. When he recovers, his father, Governor A. Andrew, and Frederick Douglass purpose that he take up role as Colonel of the 54th Massachusetts regiment. The 54th was to be the first black regiment in the Northern states.
When Shaw finally decides to take up the position, he finds a world of hard decisions to make. They went in Fort Wagner as great soldiers. And they came out heroes. In Glory the 54th Massachusetts regiment led a suicidal attack on Fort Wagner in Charleston, South Carolina, harbor. Though Shaw fell in battle, his troops fought on until it became clear that the anticipated reinforcements were not going to come. Ultimately, the 54th had to retreat, yet they achieved a kind of victory by proving the bravery of black troops under fire. (Kids Discover; 1997) The Glory DVD places the 1989 Ed Zwick film in a wider historical context with moving documentaries about the Massachusetts 54th. (Burr, 2001)
The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, made famous by the 1989 movie Glory, was the most important African American regiment raised in the North and the first black regular army regiment in the Civil War. The story is largely seen through the eyes of Robert Gould Shaw, the young commanding officer of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment......
