So why was Col. Shaw absolutely required to follow Col. Montgomery if…
-
Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Glory
kris_michael — 9 years ago(January 17, 2017 02:38 PM)
Are they both Colonels? How did Montgomery outrank Shaw and make him torch the village? I guess I don't understand the hierarchy of the military.
"Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici" -
Doc80 — 9 years ago(January 19, 2017 06:04 PM)
Even though the are both colonels, Montgomery was the brigade commander and therefore Shaw's superior in the chain of command.
Think of it like this, lets say Montgomery, Shaw and another officer all have regiments that they are commanders of. The three regiments are grouped together as a brigade. All three men are colonels but someone has to be held accountable for the actions of the brigade, in this case it's Montgomery. -
Doc80 — 9 years ago(January 20, 2017 05:16 AM)
Yeah you don't typically have two officers of the same rank within a relatively small command structure like that. Typically a brigade commander would be a brigadier general (one star) but with the loss of so many officers during the war officers would get promoted or given commands that they really weren't qualified for.
-
Thomas-FordJr-1 — 9 years ago(January 26, 2017 02:56 PM)
It's like two captains, on two different ships. Once one captain boards the other captain's ship, the host captain is the commanding officer.
In this case, the "ship" is Montgomery's operation, and Shaw and his outfit were guests on the "ship". So Shaw followed him.