The story of an all-black regiment's assault on the impregnable Fort Wagner in the Civil War, an act of extraordinary courage that changed hearts and minds in America for ever.

In 1863, the US Civil War was raging. Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation had freed over 3.5 million African-American slaves, and now the Union Army began to recruit a second all-black regiment of soldiers to join the fight.

As the struggle against the Confederate South raged on, the newly-formed 54th Massachusetts battalion prepared to attack the seemingly impregnable fortress of Fort Wagner. The odds were heavily against them; the fort had never been taken. America was watching them - and when the bugle sounded they marched towards the guns, flag held high.