FAQ

Glory is based on a screenplay written by American screenwriter Kevin Jarre. However, Jarre's inspiration came from two books: (1) One Gallant Rush: Robert Gould Shaw and His Brave Black Regiment (1989) by Peter Burchard, a novel that itself was based on letters written by Robert Gould Shaw, the colonel in command of the all-black 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, which entered the American Civil War in 1863, and (2) Lay This Laurel (1973), a photographic tribute to the Civil War sculpture of Augustus Saint-Gaudens with text by American writer and arts patron Lincoln Kirstein.

Robert Gould Shaw is the only major character based on a real person. Frederick Douglass is represented as a minor character, though he plays an important role in the movie's plot. All of the other major characters are composites.

(1) Francis George Shaw, Sarah Blake Sturgis Shaw, and Ellen Shaw, all direct relatives of Robert Gould Shaw, (2) John Albion Andrew, the governor of Massachusetts, (3) Charles Garrison Harker and George Crockett Strong, Union generals, (4) Charlotte Forten Grimké, an antislavery activist, (5) James Montgomery, Union colonel. and (6) Frederick Douglass, former slave and celebrated abolitionist speaker/activist.

In the UK, one scene in which horses fall during a gun battle had to be already removed for the theatrical release. All subsequent VHS and DVD releases did not contain this scene, either.