Question

54th regiment massachsetts write about the movie glorly

3-4 pages

Answer 1

The Civil War has been a white-only affair for nearly two years. Although in the American Revolution and the War of 1812, African Americans had fought with distinction, many in the North questioned African Americans ' discipline and fighting capabilities. Initially, President Abraham Lincoln, worried about damaging the values of white soldiers and alienating frontier slaveholding nations, refused calls to allow black combat troops in the Union Army. However, as the war dragged on, Lincoln finally switched course, and his proclamation of emancipation allowed African-American men to be enlisted.

Within days of the enactment of the proclamation on January 1, 1863, Governor John Andrew of Massachusetts began recruiting the first northern regiment of black soldiers, the 54th Massachusetts Voluntary Infantry Regiment. For soldiers, Andrew cast a wide net. Recruitment posts opened between Boston and St. Louis, and men from 22 states listened to the call for "African descent volunteers."

Massachusetts law provided that only white men could command a regiment, and Andrew found officers "in those circles of learned anti-slavery society that had the greatest interest in this experiment next to the colored race itself." The governor gave the unit command to Union officer Robert Gould Shaw, the only son of a wealthy abolitionist family in Boston. Although the Harvard-educated Shaw was only 25 years old, he had been battle-tested at Antietam and served as the elite commander of the 2nd Massachusetts Regiment with distinction. Though initially reluctant to accept his orders, Shaw arrived in Boston in February.

The regiment finally received its battle flags in a formal ceremony on May 18, 1863 after practice through winter chill and spring showers. On the outskirts of Boston, hundreds of black and white fans ringed the parade ground as the sun sparkled off the polished buttons of the blue uniforms of the soldiers. As Andrew presented the U.S. flag to the 54th Regiment, he said, "Whenever his folds are unfurled, it will mark the path of glory." The governor then issued a telegram to South Carolina with orders to report.

Confederate soldiers buried the body of Shaw in an expected sign of disrespect to his fallen black comrades in a mass grave in the island sand. But the father of the colonel saw it differently: "We can imagine no more holy place than that in which he lives, among his valiant and faithful friends, nor wish him a better company— what a bodyguard he has!"While the decades went by and the sea started to claim the unmarked mass grave, the 54th Regiment disappeared from the consciousness of the country. But all that changed when their adventures in the 1989 film "Glory" were immortalized — starring Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, and Matthew Broderick.

Following the Union defeat, the bravery and patriotism demonstrated in Fort Wagner's Second Battle by the pioneering 54th Regiment addressed concerns regarding African-Americans ' fighting ability. Around 200,000 black soldiers will serve in the Union Army by the end of the war. Up to 40,000 of them have given their lives. "The war against the South could not have been fought without the military assistance of the colored freedmen," Lincoln said.