An unknown former Bermudian slave fought in the legendary first black regiment in the American Civil War which was immortalised in the Denzel Washington film `Glory', a recently discovered newspaper report has shown.

And in an uncanny echo of the film's title, the former Bermudian slave told the Confederate newspaper in 1863 that he left the Island to join the war to free America's slaves for "glory".

An historian who collects African-American archives was so excited when he discovered the copy of the Weekly Columbus Enquirer newspaper in Georgia from 1863 that he presented it this week to Premier Jennifer Smith and the people of Bermuda.

The unnamed Bermudian was part of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment of Lincoln's Union Army, which consisted of 1000 Northern blacks, and was the first organised black military unit in American history.

The regiment was led by white officers and took part in the almost suicidal attack on the Confederate stronghold of Fort Wagner in South Carolina in July 1863, which forms the climax of the movie `Glory'.

Historian Mark Mitchell, who presented the newspaper to the Premier this week, said "a chill ran down his spine" when he discovered the newspaper six years ago and read about the Bermudian joining the war for "glory".

He said when the film was made in 1989, the film-makers did not have access to the newspaper, which carried the first published account of the battle for Fort Wagner, so they would not have known about the Bermudian's quote.

And he said the Confederate journalists who interviewed the injured Bermudian after he was captured were obviously impressed by his intelligence and eloquence, which made him stand out from the other Northern blacks, who were described in the report as a "mongrel set of trash".

Mr. Mitchell, who was in Bermuda for the African Diaspora Heritage Trail Conference, is now planning to do more research to find out the name of the Bermudian soldier and to find out if any other Bermudians fought in the famous regiment.

Slavery was abolished in Bermuda in 1834, yet 30 years later a free black Bermudian was prepared to risk his life to free other slaves.

Mr. Mitchell, who is based in Virginia, told The Royal Gazette yesterday: "To find that a Bermudian soldier had come to fight for glory, that really stunned me.

"I was first interested in the fact that he said he came to fight for glory because that was the name of the motion picture and I knew there was no way that the film-makers could have had that report.

"I'll be talking to people involved in the movie soon and hopefully I'll talk to Denzel, and when I show them this report, they'll probably faint.

"When I realised it was a Bermudian soldier, I thought that was incredibly exciting to hear that he joined this, the first northern black regiment ever raised and they were involved in this legendary battle immortalised in the picture `Glory'.

"The quote about glory sent chills down my spine for five or ten minutes and I stood there absolutely frozen when I realised the importance: there is a movie `Glory' and here is this black soldier saying he had gone to fight for glory.

"You will see they didn't have much of an opinion of the Northern blacks, but this man obviously stood out quite a bit and was obviously intelligent and well spoken. They interviewed him, there's no doubt about that, and they were incredulous he came all the way to Bermuda to fight.

"I've got books on every soldier who fought in that regiment and I will try to find out who that soldier was, or even if there were other Bermudians."

The newspaper report on the battle for Fort Wagner states: "One of the negroes is a remarkably sprightly fellow from Bermuda where he was educated as a soldier. His position is that of an Orderly Sergeant, but he has lost an arm, and probably one leg will go.

"A third of the `glory' for which he says he came to fight, being thus amputated, he will in the future be a wiser man. The others are a mongrel set of trash and very fair representatives of the common type of free Northern negro."

After handing over the newspaper to Government archivist Karla Hayward yesterday, the Premier said: "What is most exciting is that this newspaper is in 1863 and in 1863, someone who had been a slave exhibited such humanitarianism he went to another country to help free other salves, which is significant of the Bermudian spirit which existed from the very beginning, and I trust we will continue in that vein."