This is an excerpt of an overview of the Glory http://www.reelviews.net/reelviews/glory

"The historical backdrop against which Glory transpires is mostly historically accurate. In fact, a great deal of effort went into getting the details correct. The main events shown in the film happened much as they are depicted, some of the key characters (Shaw, Frederick Douglas, etc.) existed, and the outcome was as Zwick presents it. Many of the secondary characters are either partially or entirely fictionalized, but they are intended to represent a broad cross-section of the types of men who joined the Massachusetts 54th."

The history behind story of Glory is for the most part accurate. Zwick the director of this movie had attempted to make the details as accurate as they existed in reality. The illustration of the main characters (Shaw and Frederick Douglass) and events of the movie was made to the closest of accuracy to the original. The lesser characters of the movie were either somewhat real or completely made up, this was to help show the type of men that were enlisted in the 54th.