Movie Theater An epic battle brought fully to life: History Channel's GETTYSBURG

[Blue Sky Country]

Original year of release: 2011

Aside from movies like Cold Mountain, this grand slam production from the History Channel contains some of the most extensive, realistic, and guttural footage of what it is like to be in actual combat, during a war which claimed over 632,000 American lives.

Most of us who had lived through the heyday of Civil War reenactments (from the 1980's to the mid 2000's) are quite familiar with "combat footage" from historical documentaries. Most of these are scenes taken from annual living history events and they could not be as far from the truth as anything else. Basically several lines of guys in immaculate and well ironed uniforms marching up to each other in organized fashion, firing blank rounds from their rifled muskets far above the heads of the opposing ranks, while a commentator with a bullhorn announces the phases of the battle. This is perfect for educating schoolchildren on field trips and entertaining tourists out on the battlefield for a Sunday afternoon picnic...They do not portray the actual conditions of full scale engagements, some of which are large enough to involve 50,000+ casualties within a few days of fighting.

This particular documentary has truly knocked the ball out of the park with it's scale of production and bringing one of the most pivotal battles in history to life for what it was:

FULL FEATURE:

 

[shootist2004]

I thought the 1993 movie with Jeff Daniels was pretty good............

 

[Blue Sky Country]

I thought the 1993 movie with Jeff Daniels was pretty good............

Loved that movie. I saw it first in 6th grade history class and only a part of it as the class was trying to keep up with the curriculum. Watched the whole thing in it's entirety on my own and it was fantastic.

That film was based on the novel The Killer Angels, by Jeff Shaara, which was the sequel to Gods And Generals (also a fantastic movie) and prequel to The Last Full Measure. These books are HIGHLY recommended for anyone into advanced and in-depth studies of the Civil War. His style of switching POV's between high ranking commanders and rank and file recruits places them in a category of it's own within military historical fiction.

 

[Thumper580]

If the South had pushed hard, early on the first encounter they would have pushed the Union calvary and light infantry out of town and taken the high ground. The General said they were tired from the long march and wanted to rest.... They were tired, but a lost opportunity.

 

[Blue Sky Country]

If the South had pushed hard, early on the first encounter they would have pushed the Union calvary and light infantry out of town and taken the high ground. The General said they were tired from the long march and wanted to rest.... They were tired, but a lost opportunity.

This. The initial hours of the engagement only saw a few Union regiments involved in the action. The thing about this battle was that it had not been planned at all. The armies met by happenstance and if Lee had conducted a quick, multiple pronged assault on the town initially, the rest of the Union forces arriving on the field would have no choice but to occupy the low country beyond, extremely vulnerable to strategically placed Confederate artillery. It is often said that while Southern cavalry dominated the battlefield during the war, Southern artillery had always been inferior to their Union counterparts. However, the latter turned out to be false in many engagements such as Fredericksburg, Cold Harbor, and the Crater, where Southern artillery in well entrenched positions had devastated repeated Union frontal assaults with frightful precision.

The South had committed not just one or two, but multiple blunders during this campaign. The first and perhaps the most significant screw up was that Lee had allowed his cavalry to break contact with the rest of the army early on. In an age where there was no aerial surveillance (hot air balloons having just been introduced onto the battlefield), the cavalry was the eyes and ears of any military force. When Lee lost communication with his mounted troops, he effectively lost the ability to receive real time updates of enemy positions and troop strength on a complicated battlefield that stretched for many miles.

The second major tactical blunder that effectively cost the Confederacy the victory that had come so close to it's grasp, was the fuck up on Culp's Hill on the night of July 2. The importance of this mistake might as well take the top place of all of the blunders that were made during this fight. The Baltimore Pike, less than 400 yards away from the Confederate breakthrough on that night assault, was the main staging area for Meade's logistical convoy. There were wagons containing enough Spencer and Henry repeating rifles and cartridges to equip at least several regiments. And then hundreds of other wagons filled with loose powder for muskets and cannon. If the Confederates who had breached the hill had managed to secure the wagons containing the new rifles, and then torched all of the remaining vehicles that could not be hauled away, it would have been game over for the Army of the Potomac that very night. The capture of Meade's headquarters, along with the fiery chaos of wagon after wagon of powder exploding into the night sky would have initiated a full, panicked Union retreat. Incidentally, during the Battle of Stones River seven months earlier, troopers under the command of Wheeler and Wharton used this same strategy against Rosecrans' supply depots, destroying over 80-200 wagons worth of munitions, which compelled the Army of the Cumberland to partially withdraw, thus forcing Rosecrans to delay and reconsider his plans to launch his attack against Bragg's positions southeast of Nashville.

Despite all of this, the Army of Northern Virginia, right up to the doomed charge on the afternoon of the 3rd of July, had still been in decent enough shape to win a decisive victory. The recently popular theory that Robert E. Lee had been ill with viral meningitis during the Gettysburg campaign is starting to make sense more than ever. His condition certainly would have hampered his decision making process enough to order that catastrophic attack on the afternoon against a Union defensive line that all of them knew could not be dislodged.

 

[pmclaine]

If the South had pushed hard, early on the first encounter they would have pushed the Union calvary and light infantry out of town and taken the high ground. The General said they were tired from the long march and wanted to rest.... They were tired, but a lost opportunity.

I guess Early thought it wasnt "practicable".

Gen. John Buford is a warrior.

 

[pmclaine]

This. The initial hours of the engagement only saw a few Union regiments involved in the action. The thing about this battle was that it had not been planned at all. The armies met by happenstance and if Lee had conducted a quick, multiple pronged assault on the town initially, the rest of the Union forces arriving on the field would have no choice but to occupy the low country beyond, extremely vulnerable to strategically placed Confederate artillery. It is often said that while Southern cavalry dominated the battlefield during the war, Southern artillery had always been inferior to their Union counterparts. However, the latter turned out to be false in many engagements such as Fredericksburg, Cold Harbor, and the Crater, where Southern artillery in well entrenched positions had devastated repeated Union frontal assaults with frightful precision.

The South had committed not just one or two, but multiple blunders during this campaign. The first and perhaps the most significant screw up was that Lee had allowed his cavalry to break contact with the rest of the army early on. In an age where there was no aerial surveillance (hot air balloons having just been introduced onto the battlefield), the cavalry was the eyes and ears of any military force. When Lee lost communication with his mounted troops, he effectively lost the ability to receive real time updates of enemy positions and troop strength on a complicated battlefield that stretched for many miles.

The second major tactical blunder that effectively cost the Confederacy the victory that had come so close to it's grasp, was the fuck up on Culp's Hill on the night of July 2. The importance of this mistake might as well take the top place of all of the blunders that were made during this fight. The Baltimore Pike, less than 400 yards away from the Confederate breakthrough on that night assault, was the main staging area for Meade's logistical convoy. There were wagons containing enough Spencer and Henry repeating rifles and cartridges to equip at least several regiments. And then hundreds of other wagons filled with loose powder for muskets and cannon. If the Confederates who had breached the hill had managed to secure the wagons containing the new rifles, and then torched all of the remaining vehicles that could not be hauled away, it would have been game over for the Army of the Potomac that very night. The capture of Meade's headquarters, along with the fiery chaos of wagon after wagon of powder exploding into the night sky would have initiated a full, panicked Union retreat. Incidentally, during the Battle of Stones River seven months earlier, troopers under the command of Wheeler and Wharton used this same strategy against Rosecrans' supply depots, destroying over 80-200 wagons worth of munitions and forcing the Army of the Cumberland to partially withdraw, thus forcing Rosecrans to delay and reconsider his plans to launch his attack against Bragg's positions southeast of Nashville.

Despite all of this, the Army of Northern Virginia, right up to the doomed charge on the afternoon of the 3rd of July, had still been in decent enough shape to win a decisive victory. The recently popular theory that Robert E. Lee had been ill with viral meningitis during the Gettysburg campaign is starting to make sense more than ever. His cindition certainly would have hampered his decision making process enough to order that catastrophic attack on that afternoon against a Union defensive line that all of them knew could not be dislodged.

If you want to read a book of how horrific a battle it was read "A Strange and Blighted Land".

Its the story of July 4, 1863 and the months that follow in Gettysburg.

The story of what happens after 150,000 soldiers just used your sleepy town of a couple thousand as a latrine, butchery, arms dump and open air morgue.

Great book. Topics of war little considered.

 

[hankpac]

My wife's Great (x3) grandfather was an infantryman in the 42 Mississippi Infantry, Gaston Rifles, out of The Bruce/Banner MS area. Gaston was killed the first day of Gettysburg, and John Mayberry Easley was captured the second day of the battle. He spent the remainder of the war at Ft Delaware as a POW, except while in hospital, under severe conditions.
He was sent home by rail, after the war, to Memphis TN, from which he walked over 150 miles to Central MS and his family. He made it home.

 

[SAMR]

Loved that movie. I saw it first in 6th grade history class and only a part of it as the class was trying to keep up with the curriculum. Watched the whole thing in it's entirety on my own and it was fantastic.

That film was based on the novel The Killer Angels, by Jeff Shaara, which was the sequel to Gods And Generals (also a fantastic movie) and prequel to The Last Full Measure. These books are HIGHLY recommended for anyone into advanced and in-depth studies of the Civil War. His style of switching POV's between high ranking commanders and rank and file recruits places them in a category of it's own within military historical fiction.

I watched that movie for many years in a row, on the 4th of July. I will look in The Last Full Measure.

 

[Blue Sky Country]

My wife's Great (x3) grandfather was an infantryman in the 42 Mississippi Infantry, Gaston Rifles, out of The Bruce/Banner MS area. Gaston was killed the first day of Gettysburg, and John Mayberry Easley was captured the second day of the battle. He spent the remainder of the war at Ft Delaware as a POW, except while in hospital, under severe conditions.
He was sent home by rail, after the war, to Memphis TN, from which he walked over 150 miles to Central MS and his family. He made it home.

Some of the most harrowing, dangerous, and unnerving "adventure" stories, if you can call them that, have involved men returning home or trying to return home to their families at the end of the War Between the States. Not so much Union POW's being released or soldiers upon completion of their terms but Confederates who had been interred in camps far in the North, or left for dead in hospitals thousands of miles from their homes and still made miraculous recoveries.

An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge was one of the stories that had a profound impact on me, but that had been quickly shadowed by Charles Frazier's epic Cold Mountain. Your wife's great-great-great Grandfather's story is very similar to that of W.P. Inman. And I am certain that those 150 miles, through a land already devastated and scarred by the recent violence, was not a distance that any man could have survived unless he was super sharp about his wits, heavily armed and not hesitant to shoot at the first sign of trouble, and generally possessed the instinct and intuition that defined any successful gunfighter or gambler of the period. Along the way there are most likely many times where one must rely on the benevolence of kind hearts to continue going, and at the same time, there are also places inhabited by lawless types who only desired to kill, plunder and even torture. From accounts given in both fiction and non-fiction, most of the South in 1865 can be accurately described as a post-apocalyptic wasteland in the truest sense and it was indeed a feat of strength and human resilience that individuals and families were able to carve out sufficient living for themselves and in turn, helped the land recover.

Hopefully, most men like Mr. Easley returned home to their loved ones, alive and well.