Robert Gould Shaw and Discipline in the 54th Massachusetts

Other than the final assault on Fort Wagner, it’s arguably the most powerful scene in the movie GLORY. Of course, I am talking about the scene set at Camp Meigs in Readville in which Tripp, played by Denzel Washington, is flogged in front of the entire regiment for being AWOL. Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, played by Matthew Broderick, later learns that Tripp had been looking for shoes.

Though this is the scene that likely secured Denzel Washington an Oscar for his performance, very little holds up to the actual history of the regiment’s roughly 80 days in camp. The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts never lacked shoes or any other supplies while training in Readville. In many ways this was Governor John Andrew’s personal project and he wasn’t about to jeopardize the regiment’s future by depriving it of necessary supplies.

By 1863, flogging had been banned as a punishment throughout the army, but the biggest problem in this particular scene is the depiction of Shaw. He seems unsure and uneasy about what to do and once the order is given Shaw is visibly distraught as Tripp is flogged.

As history, the scene completely misses Shaw’s attitude toward the maintenance of discipline in his regiment and the lengths he went to reinforce it in his new command.