Today in history...

[JmCraz8]

Colonel Robert G. Shaw led the brave men of the 54th Massachusettes to attack Fort Wagner, on Morris Island, S.C.

[Saddletank]

A brave but foolhardy enterprise. And a great waste of talent and lives.

Still I guess that's true for all wars.

[KG_Soldier]

A brave but foolhardy enterprise. And a great waste of talent and lives.

Still I guess that's true for all wars.

All except the Revolutionary War!

[Baldwin]

A bit over 'Glory'fied I'd say. They make a movie based on one regiment when there were hundreds of brigades that went through hellish campaigns like Maryland, Overland, etc that would be more interesting to hear about and have more in depth experiences throughout the war.

[Hancock the Superb]

I've always thought assaulting Fort Wagner was a stupid idea. The Union mobilized 2 entire divisions in the Department of the South to take the fort (the second division didn't engage). If you deploy three brigades to take on a regiment or two, you need to find something else. They should have just besieged it from the start.

The problem I have with Glory is that the # of men in the regiment makes it look like a company. There are never enough reenactors to portray accurate Civil War combat.

[Little Powell]

Assaulting any fort in Charleston was a stupid idea (see Secessionville). The defenses all around Charleston were brilliantly constructed (credit Beauregard, Lee, others).. It would have saved the Union thousands of lives if they would have figured out earlier that siege was the only answer.

[Saddletank]

A bit over 'Glory'fied I'd say. They make a movie based on one regiment

True, but it was also a political movie.

@ Soldier - no, you're wrong, huge waste of lives. Nothing useful gained at all.

[JmCraz8]

Fort Wagner was well constructed, the walls were thirty feet high, and the shelling of the fort wasn't effective due to the fort being sand.

[KG_Soldier]

A bit over 'Glory'fied I'd say. They make a movie based on one regiment

True, but it was also a political movie.

@ Soldier - no, you're wrong, huge waste of lives. Nothing useful gained at all.

Learn to recognize sarcasm.