Washington won an Academy Award for his role in the film. And first, as I despise critics who put people in the wrong without being able to. The experience of Shaw and his regiment was memorialized in the critically acclaimed 1990 movie Glory, starring Mathew Broderick, Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman. Over 1,500 Union troops fell or were captured to the Confederates’ 222.ĭespite the failure, the battle proved that African American forces could not only hold their own but also excel in battle. And What You Dont Gain By It by Shaw, Theodore L and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at .uk. Shaw’s troops and other Union regiments penetrated the walls at two points but did not have sufficient numbers to take the fort. Yankee troops had to march 1,200 yards down the beach to the stronghold, facing a hail of bullets from the Confederates. Union artillery battered Fort Wagner all day on July 18, but the barrage did little damage to the fort and its garrison. The regiment included two sons of abolitionist Frederick Douglass and the grandson of author and poet Sojourner Truth.

Shaw was the scion of an abolitionist family and a veteran of the 1862 Shenandoah Valley and Antietam campaigns. Shaw and his 54th Massachusetts were chosen to lead the attack of July 18. Union General Quincy Gillmore headed an operation in July 1863 to take the island and seal the approach to Charleston.

The only approach to the fort was across a narrow stretch of beach bounded by the Atlantic on one side and a swampy marshland on the other. It was a massive earthwork, 600 feet wide and made from sand piled 30 feet high. Shaw was commander of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, perhaps the most famous regiment of African American troops during the war.įort Wagner stood on Morris Island, guarding the approach to Charleston harbor. Shaw is the author of Critical Quackery (5.00 avg rating, 1 rating, 0 reviews), Dont Get Taught Art This Way as So Many People Do (0.0 avg r. Union Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and 272 of his troops are killed in an assault on Fort Wagner, near Charleston, South Carolina.

War On Critics by Theodore L. Shaw