Glory’s Wrong Direction
In the film, the 54th advances south toward their target. In reality, they would not have come from that direction. Battle maps show Fort Wagner sitting on Cummings Point, which extends northwards from the mainland. The 54th and the regiments behind it would have advanced from the south, moving northward to reach Fort Wagner. The terrain left only a small strip of land to cross, situated between the ocean and swampland, leaving little room for the units to access the Fort.
As shown in the film, this meant the 54th, as the first regiment to reach the fort, would have taken the full force of Fort Wagner’s defenses, since their whole regiment approached from one narrow path. Their losses, as shown in the film, were substantial. Of the 650 men of the 54th, 270 died (including Shaw), went missing, or were wounded. They are buried in an unmarked mass grave near the Fort.
