How was the 54th Massachusetts treated and how did they overcome their difficulties?

Question

I cannot find this information anywhere on the internet. My instructions tell me it's based on the movie Glory. Has anybody who has seen this movie please tell me?

Sorry, I meant to say that the information about how they were treated and how they overcame their difficulties was supposed to be gotten from Glory (which I think why it said "based on the movie Glory")

Answer 1

The 54Th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was the first black regiment recruited in the north, there were at least 2 other black regiments that were recruited in the South of freed slaves. The 54th had some famous people on it's roles, the sons of Fredrick Douglass to name two and the officers were drawn from the ranks of the 2nd Mass. They were treated as second class soldiers by the white regiments that fought along side them. Where a white Private would make $13.00/ day a ***** private got $10.00/ day and they may not be paid on time and the Governor of Massachusetts had to pay them out of his states funds to make up the difference of their pay. They were not issued the things that they were needed to train and it was not wanted by the generals in Washington. Until the 54th was enlisted the plan had been that the Civil War would be fought only as a white man's war. After the 54th the South threatened to execute and black solder caught would be executed as an armed slave and executed and that any white officers would be executed as leading a slave revolt. As it was most blacks captured was treated as a run away slave and they were returned to their owners or to the marketplace.

Once in the field the regiment was given the dirty jobs that were carried out with aplomb and pluck they were so good that the 54th was pick to occupy Charleston SC just after the war.

For a good look at the 54th read "A Brave Black Regiment" by Luis F. Emilio which is the history of the 54th Mass.

Answer 2

The move Glory was based on the 54th Massachusetts rather than the other way around....

You will find information about them at the link below.

Answer 3

The movie is based on the 54th Massachusetts. I just plugged 54th Massachusetts into Google and hit search and found several sites. This unit was organized in 1863 and was one of the first free black units in the Union army.

Answer 4

As Miss Dave.. said they were abused, the last ones to get supplies and they were threaten in every town, along with their captain who was white. As we all know they were also the first all black regiment in the Cival War. In their last stand (where they got respect and famous) they charged up a hill in South Carolina attacking the fort that cost everyones life. They are the ones in my opinion that did what was needed to really win the war.

Answer 5

because they were black, the army didn't want to give them supplies or anything. In the end, they were the first calvary to attack the fort help by South Carolina but they were all killed