During the Civil War, black soldiers of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry marched alongside their young white commander, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. Through his letters to family and friends, a portrait emerges of a man more divided and complex--though no less heroic--than the Shaw depicted in the film Glory.

Based on the true story of the first black regiment to fight for the North in the Civil War. Robert Gould Shaw and Cabot Forbes are two idealistic young Bostonians that lead the regiment; Sgt. Maj. John Rawlins is the inspiration who unites the troops ; Pvt. Trip is a runaway slave who joins the regiment.

"In 1863, the US Civil War was raging. Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation had freed over 3.5 million African-American slaves, and now the Union Army began to recruit a second all-black regiment of soldiers to join the fight. As the struggle against the Confederate South raged on, the newly-formed 54th Massachusetts battalion prepared to attack the seemingly impregnable fortress of Fort Wagner. The odds were heavily against them; the fort...

Describes the Civil War battle of Morris Island, South Carolina, during which Sargeant William H. Carney became the first African American to earn a Congressional Medal of Honor by preserving the flag. In July 1863, a significantbattle in the Civil War was fought. Sergeant William H. Carney, an officer of the newly formed Massachusetts Fifty-fourth Regiment - comprised entirely of African Americans - led his soldiers over the ramparts of Fort Wagner,...