Glory goofs

On one occasion Shaw instructs Sergeant Major Mulcahy "at ease." During the Civil War this order would, historically, have been given as "rest" or "in place rest."

As the 54th Massachusetts march past a Southern plantation, a group of slave children run out to watch them. Undertaker greets them, and they wave; one child is wearing a digital watch on his wrist.

After Col Shaw is informed of his promotion, he and Maj Forbes converse outdoors, while Maj Forbes drinks champagne from a bottle of Dom Pérignon. The champagne was first produced in 1921 but did not go on sale until 1936.

When Rawlins is promoted to Sergeant Major, he is presented with the insignia affixed to a blue cloth backing. At that time the rank stripes were separate pieces and had to be stitched on individually.

As the 54th makes its initial march past a mansion in Georgia, a square concrete kerb can be seen on the left-hand side of the road (to the soldiers' right).

As the 54th Massachusetts march along the street in their new uniforms for the first time, a modern electrical junction box is briefly visible on a wall in the background.

In one scene, as a Union soldier lifts his arm, he can clearly be seen wearing a digital watch from the 1980s.

While a Negro spiritual is sung on the eve of the assault on Fort Wagner, both the key and tempo shift noticeably when the soundtrack moves from playback to production sound (recorded on location).

As the 54th Massachusetts readies itself for battle on James Island, Rawlins calls out to the men "All right, men, form a firing line! Over here!", without moving his lips.

When Rawlins hands Trip a rifle, Trip appears to fire it into the air, producing an audible "click" (indicating no round was chambered). However, the hammer remains in the cocked position, which shows Trip never actually pulled the trigger; the "click" was added in post-production.

As Private Trip is brought before Captain Shaw on a charge of desertion, the drums fall silent.

In the film, when Colonel Shaw offers to lead the assault on Fort Wagner, he tells General Strong, "you should have seen us in action two days ago; we were a sight to see". The skirmish Shaw was referring to took place on James Island, South Carolina, on 16 July 1863, while the assault on Fort Wagner occurred two days later, on 18 July. Yet the movie stages Shaw's conversation with General Strong on the 17th, with the regiment resting that night and launching the attack the following day. He therefore ought to have said "you should have seen us in action yesterday."

When Shaw visits the Quartermaters office, he insists on "600 pairs of shoes and 1200 pairs of socks." That wouldn't have been sufficient; the unit's full strength was 1,100 soldiers.

When Major Forbes approaches Shaw to ask why he is being so severe with the men, he is standing outdoors without either his uniform blouse (coat) or his hat. Neither would have been acceptable during the Civil War. In fact, current military regulations require headgear (covers) to be worn whilst outdoors.

When handing out Enfields, John Rawlins says that they are ".57 calibre Enfield rifles." They're actually .577 calibre, and the crate is labelled .577 calibre as well.

When Shaw is knocked to the ground at Antietam, he lands on top of the corpse of a Union soldier, which then blinks.

In the 54th's opening battle scene, Sergeant Major Rawlins kills a Confederate officer who is wearing Union-style shoulder straps of a First Lieutenant. Historical evidence indicates Confederate officers wore the "old Army" style shoulder straps, as exemplified by Lieutenant-General Wade Hampton.

During the assault on Fort Wagner, a Confederate artilleryman emerges from inside the fort onto the rampart and even outside the wall to load his gun. In practice, artillery crews would draw their piece back within the defences to reload, allowing them to do so without exposing themselves to enemy fire.

During the Battle of James Island, within a second and without any orders, the entire 54th Regiment fixed their bayonets for the charge.

In the opening engagement, the bayonets are inexplicably fixed before they advance. When they first take up the line in that scene, the bayonets are clearly unfixed, and no order is ever given to fix them.

At James Island, Thomas's bayonet protrudes from the Confederate soldier's chest, with Thomas immediately behind him. However, in the subsequent shot of the soldier's back there is no wound, bayonet, rifle or Thomas visible.

After Shaw is wounded at the Battle of Antietam, he crawls up against a dead soldier. By the time Rawlins comes upon him, he is lying beside an entirely different man.

When Trip has a scuffle with the white soldier in the road and Sergeant Major Rawlins steps forward to break it up, his coat is unbuttoned and his vest is plainly visible; when the camera cuts to him speaking, however, his coat is buttoned right up to the collar.

Over the beach, the sky alternates between clear and overcast several times in the run-up to the charge on Fort Wagner.

When Rawlins is promoted to Sergeant Major aboard the boats, he is summoned to the front and centre. As he does so, he salutes with his palm facing forwards; in the following shot his palm is facing downwards.

During Shaw and Cabot’s meeting with General Harter about moving their men into combat command, Cabot keeps his hands folded in his lap whenever the camera is on him. When the shot switches to General Harter, Cabot is shown with his face propped on one hand.

The Confederate soldier Trip grapples with manages to get hold of a hat just before he is clubbed.

Major Forbes arrives on the scene while the 54th are beginning an altercation with white Union soldiers, and the soldier he addresses is alternately called "corporal" and "sergeant".

The sun's position as Shaw surveys the beach in front of Fort Wagner.

As they first fall in, the buckle on Colonel Shaw's kepi shifts from the right-hand side of the chin strap to the centre, then moves back again several times.

The change in Forbes's facial hair length between the scene in which General Strong delivers his address and the battle scene the following day.

The shadow across Shaw's face shifts when he informs the men that he will tear up his pay cheque.

In the film’s final battle, when the 54th is forming up on the beach to assault Fort Wagner, the sea is shown on their left. That would suggest they were heading south rather than north. Because Fort Wagner was assaulted from the south, the Atlantic should be on their right.

In reality, the 54th Massachusetts didn't admit escaped slaves because Governor Andrew wanted it to be an elite regiment. Almost all of the men were literate, and one private was a doctor.

In the film, Shaw is taken aback when the men reject wages reduced on account of their being a "coloured" regiment, though he ultimately joins them in refusing the pay. In truth, Robert Gould Shaw had originated the idea himself.

In the film, Shaw's body is consigned to the mass grave still wearing his red sash. The sash was taken by a private and subsequently purchased from him by an officer of Fort Wagner. That officer returned the sash to Shaw's widow twenty years later.

In the film, Robert Gould Shaw is asked to take command as colonel of the 54th Massachusetts at a gathering in Boston and accepts straight away. In reality, however, he declined the post on at least two occasions, considering himself unworthy, and only agreed after being persuaded by his friend Charles Russell Lowell, commander of the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry.

In the film, Shaw asks who will carry the colours if they should fall during the assault on Fort Wagner. In real life, General Strong posed the question, and Robert Gould Shaw volunteered.

The film portrays the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment training over Christmas 1862, following the Battle of Antietam in September 1862. In reality, the 54th Massachusetts was organised in March 1863. Its first engagement occurred on James Island, South Carolina, on 16 July 1863, followed by the assault on Fort Wagner on 18 July 1863. The regiment subsequently saw action at Olustee, Florida (20 February 1864), Honey Hill, South Carolina (30 November 1864), and Boykin's Mill, South Carolina (18 April 1865).

While Rawlins distributes the Enfield rifles, he announces the serial number for each. Genuine Enfield rifles do not carry serial numbers; only reproductions do.

General Charles Garrison Harker was not in South Carolina when the 54th Massachusetts was there. At that time he was serving with the Army of the Cumberland in Tennessee as part of the Tullahoma Campaign. He was only 25, whereas Bob Gunton was 44.

In reality, the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment's Sergeant Major was Lewis Henry Douglass — the eldest son of Frederick Douglass — who was 22 years old when the regiment was mustered into service.

In the film, Shaw takes command of the regiment after being promoted directly from Captain to Colonel. In reality, he was not advanced immediately upon assuming leadership of the 54th Regiment: he was promoted to Major once the regiment had mustered its first company, and became a Colonel a few weeks later as the regiment drew near full strength.

Shortly before Christmas, Shaw rides his horse, practising with his sabre on watermelons that are gathered in late spring and early summer.

Gen. Harker is inspired by Maj.-Gen. David "Black Dave" Hunter, who recruited former slaves into the Department of South Carolina. In reality, Hunter was considerably less corrupt than the "Harker" character depicted here.

The 54th Massachusetts was not the first all-Black regiment. The earliest was the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Regiment, followed by the 2nd Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Regiment. During the American Revolution there were several entirely Black units which fought for the British and later settled in Atlantic Canada.

In the scene showing Gould being treated in a Union field hospital after the Battle of Antietam, a soldier undergoing an amputation is depicted screaming in agony and pleading with the surgeons to stop cutting. In truth, Civil War amputations were commonly carried out with the patient rendered unconscious by chloroform or ether, and this was particularly the case in Union field hospitals, which were generally better supplied than their Confederate counterparts.

In their first engagement, the 54th confront a Confederate cavalry charge that is depicted as being repulsed with ease. In reality, during the Civil War cavalry units on both sides seldom launched head‑on attacks against formed infantry unless the encounter was unexpected or the riders were driven by desperation to escape an enemy encirclement. In most such assaults the result was almost invariably heavy cavalry casualties.

On the eve of the assault on Fort Wagner, the men of the 54th Massachusetts were gathered around a campfire singing a Negro spiritual in which Noah counts the animals boarding the ark two-by-two. The song references kangaroos — creatures that would have been largely unknown to most Americans at that period. Enslaved people in the South, who were denied an education, would have been even less likely to have heard of them. The regiment was largely made up of relatively educated northern black men, who probably would not have been familiar with the work songs that originated in the fields of southern plantations, much less the ones to add new verses.

As the units mass on the beach ahead of the assault on the fort, Union artillery is depicted firing over the heads of Union infantry just a few yards in front of them. In reality, Civil War artillery seldom fired over the heads of friendly soldiers for several reasons, chief among them the risk of shells detonating prematurely.

In reality, Robert Gould Shaw was not wounded at the Battle of Antietam, despite the film suggesting otherwise.

Throughout the film, Confederate soldiers are repeatedly shown bearing the familiar "stars and bars" flag. That banner was actually a naval ensign adopted late in the conflict and was only flown by a handful of vessels. Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard suggested it for use as a battle flag, and the Army of Northern Virginia may have employed it for a very brief period before it was formally rejected. It wouldn't have appeared at any engagement or location in South Carolina or Georgia. CORRECTION: The Beauregard Battle Flag (not the "Stars and Bars", which was the Confederacy's first national flag) was carried extensively by the Army of Northern Virginia. As P.G.T. Beauregard, the flag's designer, was in overall command of the defence of Charleston and therefore Fort Wagner, it is entirely plausible that the troops stationed there would have borne it.

The film strongly implies that most of the enlisted men were escaped slaves or, at the very least, Southerners. In fact, the 54th was recruited in the North, predominantly in New England, and was composed entirely of free men.

When Robert Gould Shaw meets Frederick Douglass at his parents' mansion in the film, Douglass is shown with white hair and whiskers. In reality, in 1862 — when this scene is set — Douglass was only about 45, and his hair and whiskers did not turn white until after the Civil War.

During the advance of the 2nd Massachusetts with Robert Shaw leading, a white state flag is borne. That banner, presented to the regiment by the state government, was never borne in action. The correct flag would have been the state flag with a blue field.

When Col. Shaw is encamped at Readville, his horse's tack is fashioned from yellow-coloured leather. Infantry tack is entirely black, or occasionally blue.

In the film, Shaw's family are portrayed as living in Boston. However, at the outbreak of the war the Shaw family were actually living on Staten Island, New York, because Shaw's mother suffered from an eye condition and needed to be close to an ophthalmologist on Staten Island who had been recommended to her.

When the 54th attack Fort Wagner, the Atlantic Ocean is depicted on the wrong side; it should be to their right, since their assault comes from the south.

The night before the Battle of Fort Wagner the 54th Massachusetts is depicted encamped. In reality the regiment was forced-marched without an opportunity to rest and then launched its assault.

During the 54th's opening engagement on James Island, a Confederate regiment's flag identifies it as the 16th Georgia. The 16th was not in South Carolina at that time; it was part of General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, stationed in Maryland in the aftermath of Gettysburg.

After being promoted to the rank of Sergeant Major, Rawlins is frequently addressed as "Sergeant Rawlins". Individuals holding the rank of Sergeant Major should always be addressed precisely as "Sergeant Major" and nothing else.

The first clash at Antietam occurred at a stone bridge over Antietam Creek and in a cornfield — both sites are nowhere near the opening fight shown here. It's clearly a re-enactment staged on a neatly kept grassy field.

The handgun Colonel Shaw inspects in the final scene is a Confederate revolver fitted with a brass frame.

The film shows the men of the 54th Massachusetts drilling in civilian clothing and being quartered in tents in the autumn and winter of 1862. In reality, the 54th Massachusetts was organised in March 1863 as a showpiece Black regiment, and the men were immediately issued with uniforms and quartered in standard military barracks.

The film asserts that "over half" of the regiment was lost in the assault on Fort Wagner. Official records show the 54th sustained 272 casualties, which is nearer to 40%. Of those, 116 were fatalities — just under 20% of the men who stormed the fort. In formal military terminology, casualties also include soldiers taken prisoner. Including the 156 captured men raises the total to over 50%.

"The Bonnie Blue Flag" is heard as the 54th returns from the Battle of James Island. Its tune comes from "The Irish Jaunting Car," a British song dating to the Crimean War. Several numbers on both sides during the Civil War adopted that same melody, among them "The Bonnie Blue Flag" and "Arms of Abraham," a comic song lamenting the trials of a conscript in the Union Army.

Morgan Freeman's character would still have fallen within the age range for recruitment or conscription into the Union Army in 1863. At that time, enlistment was limited to men between 18 and 45 years old. Freeman was in his fifties when the film was made, but people in the nineteenth century—particularly those who worked outdoors, like his character—tended to age much more rapidly.

A children's choir sing "My Country 'Tis of Thee." The words date from 1831 and had become popular by 1863.

In the opening scenes, as Shaw marches alongside his troops towards the Battle of Antietam, the rank insignia on his epaulettes change from those of a captain (two bars) to those of a second lieutenant (no insignia within the epaulette borders), because it's a flashback.

During the battle on James Island, immediately after the first skirmish between Confederate cavalry and Col. Shaw's men, Col. Shaw orders the men to 'Fire at will'. The soldiers echo the command and, moments later, someone can be heard shouting 'Where's Will?'

When the children engage with Morgan Freeman and he waves farewell, a contemporary wristwatch is visible on a child's arm in the bottom-right corner of the screen.

When Shaw finally loses patience with the Quartermaster, he marches in and demands 600 pairs of shoes and 1,200 pairs of socks. After the initial exchange, Matthew Broderick says "Do you really think you can keep (pause) 700 Union soldiers..." The slight pause indicates that Broderick had briefly forgotten his lines.

Many of the passages presented as Colonel Shaw's letters to his mother, heard in voice-over throughout the film, are in fact drawn from Thomas Wentworth Higginson's 1870 book "Army Life in a Black Regiment," Higginson having commanded the 1st South Carolina Regiment during the Civil War.

Shortly after Rawlins says the men need shoes, a soldier's shoe is slowly removed in front of Shaw. It reveals how "worn out" the shoe is meant to be and the subsequent damage to the man's foot. Only the midpoint of the sole appears worn out.

The men's breath can be seen on the night before the major assault on Fort Wagner. That would be highly unlikely in South Carolina in July.

When Jupiter fires at bottles with his newly issued rifle, he shoulders the weapon on his right side but aims with his left eye. He later tells Shaw that he is a competent shot. For him to be consistently accurate, he ought to have been using his right eye. Particularly with an unfamiliar firearm, achieving a proper sight picture with the left eye would have been impossible.

Many of the battle sequences were evidently shot at Civil War re-enactments: the troops move forward in large numbers, often coming dangerously close—especially to the cannon—before any firing takes place. The small arms of the era were accurate to roughly 400 yards, while artillery was typically employed at greater distances.

During the assault on the fort, the bayonets are clearly made of rubber.

In a number of close-ups of Matthew's face, the fabric backing of his false moustache can be seen.

Shaw's family is depicted as living in Boston. Although that was their place of origin, during the Civil War the Shaw family were based on Staten Island, New York so they could be close to an ophthalmologist treating Shaw's mother. This explains why, at the beginning of the film, Shaw is serving in a New York regiment rather than a Massachusetts one.

When the actors open their mouths wide, only the front few teeth are discoloured, while the rest are bright white.

Thomas Searles is shot in the shoulder at point-blank range by a musket, yet still takes part in the final battle. Given such an injury and the level of pain he would have suffered, it is inconceivable that he could have rejoined his unit and fought.