Dolores,
As someone who is writing his dissertation on black Civil War veterans, and
has spent alot of time reading black accounts of service in Civil War pension
files, I might add to the discussion by saying while _Glory_ depicts the
experience of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry fairly well (with some
dramatic license taken), but in many ways the experience of the 54th is not
completely indicative of the experience the USCT in general. In particular,
the troops of the 54th saw quite a bit more combat than was usual for the
USCT. Most of the pension files I've read, contain accounts of a battle or two,
some skirmishes, expeditions, or none. Indeed, few black soldiers seem to
be making claims for battle wounds, while many are making claims based on
alleged disabilities contracted from illness in service. For instance, I had
a veteran today who claimed he contracted rheumatism from exposure while
waiting for his final disharge and pay at City Point, VA. First, he was
stuck on the deck of a troop ship and then housed in a leaky cabin with muddy
floors. Plausible, but the Pension Bureau rejected his claim because of the
lack of contemporary medical evidence, or affidavits from former comrades
and officers. He could not find one former officer for an affidavit, and it was
the officers whose sworn statements the Pension Bureau seemed to pay attention
the most to. His problem was a common one. There was very little
contact between black soldiers and their former officers after the war.
The Massachusetts regiments (54th and 55th) seem to be the only black
regiments where the soldiers and officers would get together for reunions after
the war. This is not to say that white officers in other USCT regiments
did not develop respect for their troops. There are plenty of articles written
by those officers after the war praising black soldiers, but I can't find
accounts of them socializing after the war with these men; while I can for
the Massachusetts regiments, particularly the 55th.
In short, the 54th Massachusetts was in many ways an "elite" black regiment.
While _Glory_ is a great movie, and does a good job of presenting the some
of the important issues of the black military experience--blacks proving
themselves in combat and the equal pay issue--the experience of other
black Civil War regiments was of a cruder sort. The 54th Massachusetts
has an interesting story that people want to see. I doubt they'd be interested
in the story of the 65th USCT, which lost 742 of its 1707 men to death from
disease or accident (see Paul E. Steiner, _Medical History of a Civil War
Regiment: Disease in the Sixty-Fifth United States Colored Infantry_), not
combat. While the 65th USCT is an extreme example, many, many, more
blacks soldiers died from disease, than from combat-related causes.
Cordially,
Don Shaffer
University of Maryland, College Park