In the movie Glory, how did the armies attack during battle?

Question

I know that the armies usually used a firing line to attack but that didn't really seem strategic. Was this their main way to attack or did they have other ways?

Answer 1

What you see in the movie Glory is very historically accurate. What you need to realize is that the rifles used in the Civil War had limited range of fire (usually under 500 yards) and were single shot and had to be manually reloaded. Most of the battles were line up and shoot at each other a couple of times, then attack with hand to hand combat. It was pretty brutal. Alternate ways of attack were with Calvary (soldiers on horses) or artillery (canon fire) but both methods were inaccurate and not worth the effort.