134 GLORY
(Savannah), 120 miles to the south. The climactic Second Battle of Fort Wagner was
shot 60 miles south of Savannah, on Jekyll Island, 197 miles south of its actual
location on Morris Island, South Carolina.Plot Summary
During the American Civil War, Capt. Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick) is
wounded at the Battle of Antietam (17 September 1862). As a result of his injuries,
he returns to Boston on leave. He spends time with his family and is introduced
to Frederick Douglass (Raymond St. Jacques), a former slave turned famed aboli-
tionist. After a respite, Shaw is commissioned to command one of the first all- black
regiments in the Union Army: the 54th Regiment Mas sa chu setts Volunteer Infan-
try (MVI). He agrees to the commission, asking his friend, Cabot Forbes (Cary
Elwes), to serve alongside him. Their first volunteer is a freeman named Thomas
Searles (Andre Braugher). Other recruits sign up, including Sgt. Maj. John Rawlins
(Morgan Freeman), an escaped slave named Silas Trip (Denzel Washington), free-
man Jupiter Sharts ( Jihmi Kennedy), and a mute young drummer boy (RonReaco
Lee). Trip clashes with Searles and Rawlins intervenes. In response to the Emanci-
pation Proclamation (22 September 1862) the Confederacy commands that all
black Union soldiers captured during the war be shot and killed along with their
white superiors. Thereafter the black soldiers undergo training at a camp in Read-
ing, Mas sa chu setts, under the tutelage of Sergeant- Major Mulcahy ( John Finn), a
tough, no- nonsense Irishman. After Trip supposedly deserts and is captured, Shaw
orders him flogged as an example to the troops, but Trip’s exposed back reveals
the scars of many previous whippings as a slave, a sight that trou bles Shaw, who
is, after all, an ardent abolitionist. Shaw is further chagrined to learn from Rawl-
ins that Trip had left camp to find shoes to replace his worn- out ones. Shaw fur-
ther discovers that all of his men are being deprived of needed supplies by a racist
quartermaster (Richard Riehle), whom he angrily confronts. Shaw also supports
his men in a dispute over pay (white soldiers are paid $13 a month but black sol-
diers are paid only $10). When Trip urges his comrades to go without pay in pro-
test, Shaw follows suit and earns the re spect of his men. Because black soldiers are
not allowed to rank as officers, Rawlins is promoted to sergeant- major: the highest
rank for an enlisted man. After the 54th is trained, the unit is put under the com-
mand of Gen. Charles Garrison Harker (Bob Gunton). En route to joining the war
in South Carolina, Harker’s second- in- command, Col. James Montgomery (Cliff
De Young), orders the 54th to sack and burn a Georgia town (11 June 1863). Shaw
does not wish to follow the command, but acquiesces when his leadership role is
threatened; the town of Darien, Georgia, is destroyed. Shaw pushes for his men to
be allowed to join their fellow Union soldiers in battle; since being activated, they
have been relegated to manual labor. Shaw eventually succeeds, and the unit fares
well in their first bout of active combat on James Island, South Carolina (16
July 1863). Thomas is injured while saving Trip’s life, and consequently earns his
re spect. Soon thereafter Brig. Gen. George Crockett Strong ( Jay O. Sanders) informs
Shaw and his other staff officers of a major campaign to secure Charleston Harbor,
a plan that will necessitate the capture of nearby Battery Wagner on Morris Island,