Does the movie Glory follow history?
Answer Like any movie, it has mistakes or in this case artistic liberties. Like when they flogged Denzel, that would never had happened. We had already quit floggings and it was the wrong punishment for the crime he committed. Mutiny and threats of murder were not usual discipline problems. Straggling, drunkenness, fighting, dereliction of duty, theft, desertion, malingering, cowardice, bounty jumping, and insubordination were the common fare at courts-martial. Both Union and Confederate services made provisions for military courts and prescribed specific punishments for some offenses. But often, because of pressures of time, courts were not called in noncapital cases and commanding officers dispensed justice on the spot with some form of minor or corporal punishment. These included the Buck and Gag, walking guard duty carrying a heavy log instead of a rifle, being tied up by the thumbs, riding the “wooden mule” (a soldier was forced to sit for hours atop a narrow rail set high enough
