'Cause we men ain't we...

So as some of you may have realized by now, not only do I enjoy civil war history, but also a good war flick, as I've seen and own about all of 'em. Well, last night after work, I decided to pop in Glory, the movie based on the story of the 54th Massachusetts and its commander Robert Gould Shaw. As I was watching, and picking out the little anachronisms as always, I began to wonder about a few things, and this is what I found.

The first thing I wondered about was the Antietam scene. Having visited the battlefield just last summer, I was trying to place where in God's name the scene was supposed to have taken place. It was maddening! So I looked up Shaw to find out what regiment he was with and where they had fought. It turns out he was with the 2nd Mass. at Antietam of Gordon's brigade with the Twelfth Corps originally led by Joseph K. F. Mansfield before his death. According to the book Landscape Turned Red by Stephen W. Sears, Gordon's brigade (2nd Mass, 3rd Wisc, 27th Indiana) was the one plugged into the gap left by Hood's counterattack in the center of the First Corps' line. Therefore, Shaw's men would have been fighting for/in the infamous cornfield starting around the Miller Farm. They also had to wait under fire as the broken regiments of Meade's division were milling about in front of them. There would have been no gallant march forward over clean open ground to a slight rise with little opening fire. The men of the 2nd Massachusetts would have formed up, marched up to the rise of the Miller Farm and would have seen the aftermath of the first fight for this part of the ground. There would have been the wounded, dead, and mutilated everywhere. Screams, frightened horses, and confederate buck and ball would have been waiting for them. There would have been no confederate shells bursting overhead, but Mississippians, Alabamans, and North Carolinians of Hood's division awaiting in tall corn; the corn being partially trampled, cut, and torn by previous fighting. To Shaw's left, he would see the men of Alfred Colquitt's brigade marching through the stampeding cattle of the Mumma farm to attack their flank, supported up close by two sections of artillery.

Quite a different scene, wouldn't you agree?

Worth mentioning also, was the retreat as Shaw was lying on the ground. The 2nd never broke and ran. They held their ground in the cornfield, and along with the 13th New Jersey, were the two regiments of the 12th Corps ordered to support Sumner's attack, which if you don't know the story, is one I don't have time for today. They were the regiments who found themselves fighting along the Hagerstown Turnpike where the famous Matthew Brady photos were taken. With no Sumner in sight, they about-faced in the presence of withering fire and marched back the way they had come in perfect order, noted by the officers in their official reports. Shaw had only been a Captain since the 10th of August of that year.

More to come tomorrow, including "Major Forbes" and the assault on "Fort Wagner"
To be continued...