The opening will always remind me of dad. He'd comment on how he loved Adams County, PA.
I can hear most of his commentary in my head as I watch this. And how he would whistle the score
We used to watch it about once a month or so
My mother is obviously a very patient person
The picket line, featuring the one fat guy in the whole Army of Northern Virginia
I'm guessing he also played Santa Claus at Christmas time
They probably ate him during the retreat from Petersburg
I used to not like Martin Sheen's "frantic and concerned" Lee
Now, I actually kinda dig it. Helps break the "marble man" mythos.
I totes relate with Chamberlain not wanting to wake up when people show up with bad news
Granted, I've never been woken up to "we've got 120 mutineers showing up"
It's more like "hey, we can't find a set of NODS"
Now, I know this JLC speech is mainly fiction - I mean, he did speak, he did convince most of them to fight, but we don't know just what was said. But.
I love this speech so much.
"We are an army out to set other men free...it's the idea that we all have value"
That moment you remember that you unfortunately purchased the extended edition and realize just WHY all these scenes were cut
Because they're sooooooo bad
I do love Buford's monologue, but Meade wasn't gonna attack Lee if he'd seized Cemetery Hill
He already had plans developed for a defensive line near Pipe Creek for this very purpose. Plenty of "good ground" in southern Pennsylvania
Also, Buford's message to Reynolds was wayyyyyy more detailed as befitting the outstanding recon officer that Buford was. Probably one of the best people to have out front as the eyes of the army
Ah, a lovely deleted scene about treating Lee ordering good treatment of the civilian population
Not gonna mention the hundreds of free African-Americans taken by Lee's army and marched south into slavery, eh?
The first engagement: Gamble's brigade was not formed in line trading volleys with rebel infantry. They would have lost. Badly. Breach-loading carbines were outranged easily by rifles. Instead, the dismounted cavalrymen forced Heth to deploy his troops into line
They'd mount up and fall back when a heavy line of infantry was deployed. Buford traded space for time, but did it smartly. As evidenced by his light (4%) losses on July 1.
Only those without souls can observe Sam Elliot tearing up at "Sir, it's General Reynolds!" without feeling emotion
There should've been several minutes devoted to dialogue between the 2d, 6th, and 7th Wisconsin so that everyone could've been deeply confused/disturbed at their accents
Just as all right-feeling people are by Wisconsin accents
The Iron Brigade whupping up on Archer's brigade just doesn't get its due here. Archer was captured, brought to the rear, and presented to his old friend MG Doubleday, who said he was glad to see him. Archer replied that he was NOT glad to see him
So much for southern chivalry
And this idiotic scene depicting the collapse of the XI Corps...
Not even deigning to give Hubert "Hot Pants" Dilger his due
How can you just NOT mention a guy who wore leather pants into action and aimed cannons so well that he plugged the enemy cannon's bore with round shot?
Amazing that they could get through a 4 hour movie giving a woman only one line (a worse than pointless one) and SHOWING a person escaped from slavery BUT NOT GIVING HIM WORDS
Example of a narrative trying to take away the agency of enslaved persons
Runaway enslaved person had INCREDIBLE agency during the war. They flooded US lines and made US commanders decide what to do. Some commanders armed them, some tried to send them back. This forced the War Dept & Lincoln to do something: the Emancipation Proclamation
*persons. Good lord. Got so annoyed that my grammar failed me.
Jeff Shaara perpetuated some Lost Cause myths, although he breaks from it to raise up Longstreet and cast doubt on Lee, which was in exact contravention of the Cult of Robert E Lee
Lee, of course, was the epoch of human history, as the cult said
Longstreet lost Gettysburg, they said. Then had the temerity to become a Republican after the war, and led multiracial troops against insurrectionists in New Orleans in 1874
So yeah, they did NOT like him
*Michael* Shaara
Altho Jeff Shaara wasn't much better in his lionization of TJ Jackson
Ahhhh, the outraged General Trimble with the "we could've taken Cemetery and Culp's Hills!" narrative. A false one.
The narrative goes that Ewell failed to take the hills following the retreat of the US Army to Cemetery Hill because he wasn't aggressive enough
It presupposes that had Jackson been there, he would have taken the hills. In all probability, had Jackson been at Gettysburg, he would've smelled very bad having been dead for 2 months
Once again, it's an argument removing agency from a group. Namely the I, XI, and XII Corps with Generals Hancock and Howard who very rapidly turned both those hills into bulwarks, and would have made it another Malvern Hill. & proceeded to do so in the next few days.
The largest division of the XI corps had remained in reserve on Cemetery Hill and the I Corps artillery, some of the best in the Army of the Potomac, had mostly made it out of its fight intact
Attacking would have been a horrible idea
Shaara and Turner taking the massive leap of having Longstreet say "we should've freed the slaves THEN fired on Fort Sumter"
This is a ridiculous statement. Only under intense duress at the end of the war did a few rebels imagine freeing a few slaves to try to save everything
Good ol Father Corby praying with the Irish Brigade right before it went and got cut into even tinier pieces than it was at the beginning, with like 100 guys per regiment
Ah, and Longstreet bringing up the troublesome "oath" problem that he and Lee violated
Lee and his "there was always a higher duty to Virginia"
That's not what half your family said, traitor-face
Col. Strong Vincent. God, what a fantastic name for an outstanding leader. A PA lawyer who took it on his own initiative to move his brigade to Little Round Top without orders, risking court martial
Too bad the movie omits Sgt Tozier, the color bearer, the moment where he is standing alone on the rock, with the colors in the crook of his arm, firing a rifle like a BAMF
Much of this fighting is taken directly from Chamberlain's own memoir "Through Blood and Fire at Gettysburg," notably using his own brother to plug a hole in the line and oftentimes seeing more of the enemy around him than his own men
Notably, Chamberlain, Spear, and LT Holman Melcher would all have differing accounts of how the epic charge happened. As will happen as time passes and memories change. What is indisputable is that it happened
and it was damned glorious
And THAT'S how professors fight
Nicknames in the 1800s were so weird.
Hiram Ulysses Grant: Sam
James Peter Longstreet: Pete (ok,I'll buy that)
John Bell Hood: also Sam
"Hi, my name is Jeduthan Tucker Prudence Archibald III, but my friends call my Clem"
Lee: "the attacks were not properly coordinated"
Well, yes, Longstreet did take forever to get in place, but his attack was coordinated. Hill & Ewell however, failed to coordinate their attack & demonstration
Also, the US V Corps showed up to kick serious ass that day
Richard Jordan providing a heart-rending performance as the agonized Armistead
He died of brain cancer before the film was released
"I have never left the enemy in possession of the field"
Lmao so Antietam just isn't a thing, eh?
Well, this WAS my seat
Just in case people wondered, no, the 20th Maine wasn't sent to the center of the line. Artistic license by Michael Shaara so he could get Chamberlain to talk to Hancock and Frank Haskell
Unsure that Longstreet ever made this prophetic speech about the attack of July 3 failing. But, it matches his overall begrudging attitude during the whole battle, and his desire to firmly place responsibility for it anywhere else that he could
Trimble and Pettigrew forever forgotten in history. Only Pickett's name got to live on
Well. Sorta
James Johnston Pettigrew still has 1912's Pettigrew Hall named for him at @UNC
Because he was an "esteemed student known for his intellect"
Suuuuuuuure
Hancock saying nothing was going to happen is in exact contravention to what Meade told him that day, accurately predicting that Lee would strike the center and advising Hancock & Gibbon to place reserves
Meade outsmarted Bobby Lee on July 3, yes.
A word on the colossal cannonade that is going on: who DOESN'T love watching artillery firing en masse?
What you don't see, tho, is the masterful genius of the US Army's chief artillerists. They all knew when their fire was deemed suppressed, the rebel infantry would advance
Henry Hunt, chief of artillery for the Army of the Potomac, ordered the US batteries to withdraw or go silent, one by one. Poor EP Alexander thought his fire was having good effect. Nope. Hunt & his chiefs were replacing damaged guns, replenishing ammo, and waiting
Waiting
One whole section of 44 guns on southern Cemetery Ridge would stay hidden until the infantry advanced. They were then rolled over the crest and did horrific damage to the right flank of the assault just as the left flank was struck with plunging fire from Cemetery Hill
Instead of seeing this, we now get a whole long talk about how great Virginia is at fighting for a proposed nation-state dedicated on the supremacy of the white man and built on chattel slavery
Dad, being raised in NC, used to get very annoyed at this whole sequence and ask why no one ever showed the North Carolinians. Valid question. 130,000 Tarheels went to the Confederate army (10-12K to the US Army). NC was poorer than VA, less inclined to romanticise the war
Plus, Virginians love to talk about themselves. And the cadre of the Lost Causers were Virginians. So it's a pretty toxic mixture, really.
Never mind that Virginia was so divided that half of it left during the war
God, I love it. 69th PA giving em hell, next to Alonzo Cushing's double canister. At this moment, Stannard's Vermont brigade was slamming into the right of the attack as the 8th Ohio fired into the left flank. Double envelopment enabled by US fire driving CS units to the center
Imagine getting flanked with New Englanders on one side and Ohioans on the other
Just give up at that point, you're done for
Too bad this movie doesn't show General Hays - commanding at the stone wall - kiss his aid, grab a rebel flag, mount his horse, them ride his line, dragging the flag after him through the dirt, followed by his staff, doing the same
Because he did
Hays, incidentally, designed bridges in Pittsburgh before the war
If you've been there you know how important that is in a city that's mostly rivers
He was killed in action in 1864, sadly
Another rewatch down. Thanks for hanging out, those of you who did so.
Ya know, the French might've gotten their idea for their bayonet charge if they had been observing some shit that went down with the 27th RCT exactly one week prior to this engagement
Feb 7, 1951 - and Company E of the 27th Infantry is pinned the eff down by enemy MG fire near Soam-Ni in Korea. They're supposed to be taking this hill but shit, as often happens, just isn't working out. Enter their commander, the mustached 31yo CPT Lewis Millett
You might be thinking, "damn, that's hella old for a captain" and yeah, you'd be right. Lew, well, he uh - he took the non traditional way into a military career. Born in Maine, raised in MA, he joined the @TheNationsFirst in 1938. But when WWII began he booked it to Canada
I've been given such incredible opportunities, been able to write for places I've only dreamed of. But that was only possible because people gave me chances. I'm not sure that I've properly thanked those people
So, here goes
First is @PrivateSnuffy, who allowed me to hop onto his blog when I was stuck in staff hell doing POG things in Afghanistan. Being able to express how I felt thru blogging (like this) made me feel just a tad less crazy
Then @tomricks1 gave me my first break, with Foreign Policy. I truly appreciate this opportunity, Tom, and am thankful for all the chances you've passed my way
(Got your book, btw, can't wait to learn more about Jemmy)
Holy shit do I feel this so hard. I too was blinded by the Lost Cause growing up, even as a northerner. Everything I do now to show the truth is done to make up for what damage I've done in the past
Ok, I need to buy BG (ret)Seidule a drink for this. For putting into incredibly clear words how idiotic the myth of the Lost Cause sounds when facts are applied
"I'm prepared to go forward...I'm here live... I'm not a cat"
I am DECEASED
The dude in the screen above him needs to be a poker player because he deadpans all but one tiny smirk through all of that kitten's explanation of why it's a kitten today and not a lawyer
Ok, this all starts, as most stories do, with a baby being born to some people who were from some part of the British Empire because holy shit did those people like to colonize. John Stark was born in Londonderry, NH in 1828 to parents from Londonderry, Ireland, bc of course
You might be wondering what a New Hampshire is. Well, it aint old hampshire, that's for sure. It's like, almost Canada, but not. It's sorta like Vermont but more granite-y and flintier or something. There's lots of snow and taciturnity. And primaries. And Manchester is gross
So, I'm reading this military history book, and no, I won't tell you the name of it or the author because that wouldn't be polite, but as I'm reading I realize...this person's just drawn from like 3-4 primary sources and everything else is secondary. The endnotes are mainly ibid
Me being a nerd, I actually use footnotes and endnotes. There's sometimes hidden gems in there, including notes from the author that crack you up. But not here. So I keep reading, and keep coming across error after error, mostly contextual bc they haven't studied primary sources
I flip to the back and see this person has multiple books and refers to themself as a historian. About that.
See, being a historian isn't going "hey, I found this old stuff, it tells the full story, now buy my book! "