Last battle scene

They walked right into aimed rifles and cannons. It means they knew they were dead.

I suppose it was meant for surprise, given how courageous they were only to be stopped in their tracks. They gave everything they had and were still defeated. As in the title of the film; it was a notable achievement to have gotten so far before, during and after battle.



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I think that was a little dramatic license for effect. In real life they scaled the rampart (as shown in the film) and were driven back down by the confederate defense.

Nominally, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment numbered 1,100 soldiers at its formation in 1863. They mustered 600 soldiers for the assault on Fort (or Battery) Wagner. In their assault they suffered 272 casualties. Like the 'Light Brigade' in the Crimean War, about ten years earlier they suffered heavily, but not as heavily as legend claims.

A poster elsewhere in this thread claims they suffered more than fifty percent killed, and that is simply wrong. I would need to read the article again to be sure, but I think that fewer than 100 were killed in the assault. The others were wounded, captured, or went missing. Of course, being African American and getting captured by the Confederates meant slavery or death, so it might be viewed as worse than being killed outright. At least it was past the halfway point of the war, though the soldiers could not know that.

See how much more simple and dramatic it was in the movie?

The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.