Glory

3 Pages 800 Words

Remember The 54th
During the civil wars many small heroes were not recognized, their struggles going without acknowledgment. To many it was not about winning a prize at the end, but fighting for a cause that they believed strongly in. In the film Glory, Cornell Robert Shaw leads the US Civil War's first all-black volunteer company, fighting prejudices of both his own Union army and the Confederates. The movie showed those unsung heroes, the ones that maybe had to fight a little harder for something that was too close to their hearts. They all had to over come obstacles during the war but some, more than others, had miraculous life changing experiences.
Robert Gould Shaw was born in Boston on October 10, 1837. He died in action during the assault on Confederate Battery Wagner on July 18, 1863. He was born into a wealthy Boston family to abolitionist parents. The Shaws’ associated with such people as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe and famed lecturer Frederick Douglass who helped form the fifty-fourth Massachusetts division. His sons Lewis and Charles joined the regiment.
The film Glory, based on actual letters written by Cornell Robert Shaw to his family during the civil war, he took on the enormous and historical task of commanding an infantry of all blacks. He grew up and befriended a black man by the name of Thomas who was also part of his troop. Thomas grew up a free man and so did his father before him. He was educated and well dressed, but that did not stop him from being the first volunteer to join the army. He could easily have been labeled the most unfit soldier; he could not march inline, shoot with good aim or keep up with the rest of them. However, this did not hinder his ability to be an excellent soldier. After the relationship between him and Shaw became more of Cornell and soldier it became apparent that he was going to have to prove himself on the battlefield in order to prove him...