Filmed in Georgia: Savannah-shot 'Glory' provided moving insight into Black soldiers in Civil War

"Glory" is the story of Black soldiers under Union arms enlisted to defeat the Confederacy during the Civil War. For many people, it is news that Blacks fought In the Civil War, much less died for the Union cause.

By the end of the conflict, roughly 179,000 Black men (10% of the Union Army) served as soldiers in the U.S. Army and another 19,000 served in the Navy. Nearly 40,000 black soldiers died over the course of the war — 30,000 of infection or disease.

The film, featuring Matthew Broderick, Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington, was an enormous success. Costing only $18 million, it garnered Washington an Oscar for his supporting role as well as two other Academy Awards for cinematography and sound.

Why does it appear in this column about movies shot in Georgia, more specifically about Savannah?

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Much of "Glory" was filmed here in our hometown. River Street was transformed into the street scene depicting the Black troops marching. If you review the film, you’ll see store fronts with signs doctored to reflect the Civil War era.

Another prominent Savannah location used in "Glory" was the Mercer Williams House, also later used to great effect in the Clint Eastwood film, "Midnight in the Garden of God and Evil." Less obvious are the barracks scenes for the Black troops, converted on film from the Georgia State Railroad Museum in downtown Savannah.

Beach shots for the final charge of the black Union troops on Fort Wagner near Charleston in South Carolina, were staged at Jekyll Island.

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More interesting than the film locations are the facts behind their depiction. Colored troops, as they were then called, had been denied army participation from the outset of the war, despite avid attempts to join the fight to preserve the Union. President Lincoln was reluctant to change the rules forbidding such troops for fear of driving the border states — Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and West Virginia, which had legal slavery, into secession.

When recruitment became critical, Congress changed the rules and USCT were created – US Colored Troops, actively seeking Black enlistees. The effort stalled until black leaders like Frederick Douglass encouraged Black men to become soldiers and in the process secure eventual full citizenship.

Douglass backed up his words with action: His two sons joined the Massachusetts 54th Regiment, which eventually lost two thirds of their white officers and half their Black troops as dramatized in "Glory." One Black soldier, Sgt. William Carney, was awarded the Medal of Honor for carrying the fallen U.S. flag despite being shot in the thigh and only able to crawl forward. Sixteen Civil War Black soldiers eventually won this nation’s highest medal for valor.

If the desperate effort to wrest Fort Wagner from the Confederacy was a sacrifice and a failure, it was a success in proving the loyalty and courage of black troops and the leadership of their few white officers.

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One poignant letter from a Black soldier, Samuel Cabble, a private in the Massachusetts 54th Regiment and former slave before joining the army, follows (quoted from the National Archives and Record Administration):

"Glory" can be found at your local library and is currently streaming on HBO Max and other on-demand platforms.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Movies Filmed in Georgia: Glory 1989 with Denzel Washington