Mark said, "I'm the greatest botanist on the planet!"

die.

It starts out at the Battle of Antietam. At this point, the regiment hasn't been formed yet, and Shaw is leading a group of soldiers into the battle. He is wounded in the attack, but survives. Then he goes back to his home in Boston, where his family (who is very rich and influential) is hosting a reception for him and some other soldiers. There, he is told that the regiment would be formed, and he is asked to command it. His black friend Thomas hears, and volunteers for service in the unit.

So then a bunch of people come and volunteer, and they go through training. At the end of the first month, when the soldiers get their pay checks, they are informed that since they aren't white, they will be paid 10 dollars a month instead of 13. They get angry, and rip their checks in protest. Shaw gets their attention by firing his gun in the air. He rips his own pay check in half, and the soldiers all cheer.

Once they've completed their training, the regiment is sent to South Carolina. As they sail across a river or something, a reporter talks to the officers, Major Forbes, Shaw's second-in-command and close friend, promotes one of the men to the rank of sergeant.

Then they are sent further south into Georgia, where Shaw's superior officer orders them to loot and then burn down a town. At first, Shaw refuses, but after the threat of being court-martialled he reluctantly obeys.

Shaw's regiment isn't sent into combat right away. Instead, they are used for manual labor. In one scene, a group of white soldiers walks past where the 54th is working. One of the 54th's soldiers nearly gets into a fight with one of the white soldiers, but Major Forbes comes along and breaks it up.

Then, Shaw and Forbes confront the officer who ordered Shaw's men to burn the town. They threaten to tell the War Department about the 34 burned mansions and villages if they are not allowed to go into action. They get permission to go into combat.

So they go into combat at (I think) James Island. The Confederate cavalry charge and then fall back. Then the rebel infantry come. The fighting was nothing like modern combat; the Confederates just marched up to the Union soldiers, who were also lined up, exchanged fire, and then they charged at each other. They way they fire is basically this; Shaw shouts, "Ready!" Then the soldiers shout "Ready!" Then Shaw shouts, "Aim!" The soldiers aim their rifles and shout, "Aim!" Then Shaw shouts, "Fire!" Then the soldiers fire, all at once, at the Confederates. Once they've fired, Shaw shouts, "Reload!" The men shout "Reload!" and reload their guns. That repeats for a while, and then Shaw shouts "Fire at will!" instead of just "Fire". Then the Confederates charge, and then Shaw shouts "Charge!" and they fight at close quarters, using their bayonets as well as firing their guns. The officers also use their swords and pistols. So then the Confederates retreat.

After that, Shaw and some other officers are on a beach, looking at Fort Wagner, a Confederate fort, while a general tells them about it. He says that the only way to take the fort is by frontal assault. Then Shaw says that his regiment would like the honor of leading the charge.

As the 54th is marching up to the fort, the other soldiers, waiting on the sides of the road, cheer for them. So then the 54th marches towards the fort, and then the Confederates start shooting at them, and so the Union soldiers start charging. Then, when they reach the wall of the fort, there's a big ditch with spikes on one side. So when they're in the ditch, the Confederates are just firing down on them like fish in a barrel. So then Shaw chrges out by himself and gets shot like 50 times and there's all this dramatic music and he dies. So then everyone else who's survived charges up and a lot of them die and they eventually break through. Then as they're going on to the next line of defense the Confederate cannons fire and blow them up.

die.