Made by Ted Turner, released theatrically in 1993, it was a box office success --despite its 4 hours plus running time, that allowed only two screenings per day.
I've read the Mike Shaara novel, Killer Angels, from which Maxwell adapted the movie's script, and now I'm watching the film, 30 - 45 minutes at a time at the end of the day.
Since a trip to Gettysburg is out of the question at this time, I'm hoping the movie might help me with visualization skills of the spatial relationships of various parts of the two armies over this 3-day meatgrinder battle.
I fail at reading battlefield placement and encounter maps. I can't 'see' what any of those blocks, etc. mean. I don't understand why they would use little boxes to represent troops. Nor I can I decipher the directional arrows they use to show movement. So often the arrows don't seem to be moving in the direction they should be. I can read road maps and so on. I'm good at conceptualizing through inner visualization a website and how it should be organized to be constructive, accessible and attractive. But I cannot read a battlefield map. (I'd wash out of West Point!)
What I did manage to grasp from Shaara's book is why that 'high ground' knowingly grabbed by Gen. Buford for the Federals, the cupola observation spot, and Jeb Stuart off chasin' his own fame (farkin' thug-thief on a horse like the James Gang) mattered so much to the outcome -- outcome being that both armies suffered nearly equal devastation, but Lee lost his throw to smash all the Federal armies and have the opportunity to present Lincoln with a letter offering him peace (at least, according to the novel -- Killer Angels is a novel, not history, and this Gettysburg is a movie, not history.)
Since the battle was essentially a draw. As I understand it Lee's army didn't have the back home capacity to replace the men, the munitions and the horses he lost at Gettysburg that the Federals had. Which then, as I see it (and I may be called on this by people who understand battles and war better than I do, particularly a war with as many significant battles as our nation's Civil War did), made it impossible for Lee to ever go on the offensive -- invade -- again, instead, he had to stay home, in an every shrinking defensive home ground. Fighting only on defense, as I understand it (and surely there must be exceptions) is not a way to win a war. A battle perhaps, or even a campaign, but not a war. So this is the turning point in the Civil War.
In March of 1864 Lincoln was able to appoint Grant to be in charge of all the armies. Lincoln was still purging the key copperhead/traitors, that the traitor Buchanan had put in place, who blocked so many effective decisions, tactics and appointments, from his administration. The Battle of Gettysburg was July, 1863, and yet another in the ineffective commanders, Gen Meade was in charge. Gen. Buford and Maine, saved the Union until Grant's intelligence took over, because they did such damage to Lee's forces early on. If I understand all this correctly, that is.
Buchanan intentionally moved the army and navy out of the country while the Southerners were preparing for war, and sent army supplies -- not to Fort Sumter and other designated munitions dumps, but to locations that were convenient to the centers of the projected Confederacy.
Buchanan went down in history as The. Worst. President. Ever. Even his biographers despise him. (Though polls indicate Buchanan recently was knocked out of the top spot.)
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Civil War maps tend to be strong on roads, rivers, and rails, but weak on topography. And it's difficult to understand a battle like Gettysburg without a grasp of the topography. It really helps to go there, and I hope you're able to.
Meade actually performed quite ably at Gettysburg, as far as it went. The great criticism of him is that he did not follow up his victory in the field by pursuing and annihilating the Army of Northern Virginia as it retreated. In his defense, he was new to a command that he didn't want, and the Army of the Potomac was exhausted as well. It's now fairly well established that Lee's army was there to be had, though.
Here's a simple guide to the battle:
Day 1:
The Confederates arrive en masse to the area north and west of the town. Their advantage in numbers is undermined by lack of knowledge of the terrain and of Union strength. Jeb Stuart's cavalry had become separated from the main army, and so was unable to provide key intelligence. A day's heavy fighting drove the Union forces south of town to a position on Cemetery Hill.
Day 2:
By now, the Union army has arrived in force. Meade arrays his troops in a fishook shape stretching from Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill near town along Cemetary Ridge to the base of a hill call Little Round Top. When you visit Gettsburg, you'll see what a commanding defensive position this was. In hindsight, Lee's best move at this point would have been to withdraw and attempt to draw Meade off the high ground by marching around one of his flanks.
Instead, Lee spent the day attacking the right and left flanks. The movie -- which is quite good -- emphasizes the action of Chamberlain's 20th Maine on Little Round Top (the Federal left flank), but the closest thing to a Confederate breakthrough came later in the day. Disliking his assigned positioned the left-center Union line, General Dan Sickles acted on his own and advanced his troops to a peach orchard forward of the line. This created a salient that General James Longstreet promptly exploited, opening a hole in the Union line. Meade ordered reinforcement from the center of his line, which successfully plugged the gap.
The day's fighting ended on the Union right flank, where Confederate assaults failed to dislodge the Federals from positions on Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill.
Day 3:
Federal troops on Culp's Hill counterattacked, immediately disrupting Lee's plans for coordinated assaults on the left and right. At this point, Lee determined to assault the Federal center, resulting in the famed Pickett's Charge.
Aftermath:
The Army of Northern Virginia was too badly beaten to continue its offensive and began its retreat to Virginia. Meade failed to heed Lincoln's exhortations to pursue and destroy Lee's army. In one sense, this was a a failure of political imagination as much as anything else: Meade -- a Pennsylvanian -- felt that he had expelled the Confederates from "his" country back to "theirs," and that he had done his job.
Lincoln, of course, grasped that there was only one country, a lesson he had trouble inculcating in many of his generals. Grant understood this better than any of Lincoln's other commanders, and it was one reason why he rose to full command of all Union armies. Incidentally, Meade remained commander in name of the Army of the Potomac for the remainder of the war, although in practice Grant made the operational decisions.
That's a good and succinct summary, as far as good and succinct can go.
And this is a compelling movie. I am surprised at how compelling it is. The sequel prequel, Gods and Generals is nothing in comparison. I'd think in a family who had a kid whose history course hit the Civil War, a watch together over a week, talking and discussing, would be a great entry into all the issues of the war. Though, you know, I don't think those generals all stood around and emoted like they do, but in fiction, we'd call that info-dump. But they did write letters, oh yes, they wrote letters and kept journals.
The other thing is that this movie concentrates on the elite. The one rep from below, the Irish sergeant, of course dies. Like all magic outsiders.
But, for instance, Lincoln named Grant the rank of lieutenant general and was given command of all the Union armies. He was the only one to hold that rank since George Washington, and the only one since.
This rank was key later, when his son's investment bank went bust and President Grant was destitute and in debt thereby.
If my back were in better shape, what better time to hop on a bus and take a trip this summer to Gettysburg? (Vaquero is plenty other occupied.) I'm thinking about it, though I'm not sure I'm up to what that would take, physically. I look in great condition, coz I workout so much to keep myself mobile. But I'm not.
Love, C.
K. By the way you're among others who have told me that Meade's gotten a raw deal re his rep. I'm beginning to understand why that is so.
The Civil War. Shall we ever get past it? Surely if this planet, this nation, survives, Sir, after these next terribel years, we shall still be discussing what Lee's true Objective for his 2nd Northern Campaign were, his arrogance in conviction they were invincible, that it was All About Virginia (in the very worst way!), and who did what.
I kinda love Longstreet because of this film.
Love, C.
In the meantime it seems to me that any family should watch this film when their kid(s) get to the Civil War in school.
Second of all, everybody should watch this movie right now in tandem with Jarhead and read the book (non-fiction) too.
Love, C.
After the war, Longstreet became a pariah in the South because of his strong advocacy of reconciliation. He eventually joined the Republican party. He, Jackson, and Hancock were arguably the most able corps commanders of the war (if you think of Sherman as commanding an entire army).
My point about Meade is that his lack of follow through after Gettysburg is usually considered in light of hindsight and of Lincoln's exhortations from afar. When you consider the three days of brutal fighting and the fact that he was new to command, the picture becomes a bit more muddled.
Grant respected him, although he was never a member of Grant's inner circle. He almost blew a blood vessel when Hooker froze at Chancellorsville -- the outcome might have been very different had Meade been in command.
Lee himself observed that Meade would not make any mistakes, although he didn't regard him as a battlefield innovator, either. Still, Lee had benefited greatly from tactical and strategic errors of Meade's predecessors, something he didn't see happening in this case.
Some parts of the country are past the Civil War. Gettysburg was a real eye-opener for T., as the War was pretty much names and dates to someone from the Pacific Northwest. As the South becomes more and more populated by immigrants from the North and from Mexico, the War will have less and less of a hold there, too.
Of course, this is not to say that we're past the legacy of the Civil War. I don't know if that will ever happen.
K -- How much land do you walk over at Gettysburg?
Do you know what happened to the town during and after the war? Who did the cleanup of all those bodies, animal and human? Was it a functioning community again? How long did it take? I'm assuming the tow is now part of the National Park site of Gettysburg, or whatever national office a site like this is administered by.
Love, C.
The Gettysburg Visitor's Center is on Cemetery Ridge. The walk from Culp's Hill to Little Round Top is easy, and from LRT you can go down to Devil's Den. From there, it's a short hike up to Seminary Ridge, where Lee arrayed the Army of Northern Virginia. I haven't been out to the area north and east of town where the first day's fighting occurred, so I don't know whether current road conditions allow you to walk there. Call in advance and they can tell you.
An excellent short book to read and bring with you is James McPherson's Hallowed Ground: A Walk At Gettysburg. (http://www.amazon.com/Hallowed-Ground-Gettysburg-Crown-Journeys/dp/0609610236/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218223201&sr=1-11)
I'm not sure who conducted the cleanup of the battlefield, although it was finished by November when Lincoln dedicated the cemetery with the Gettysburg Address. Talk about a subject for a book, though. BTW, a visit to Gettysburg is not complete without paying your respects at the cemetery.
K -- I'm going to research the battlefield cleanup of the Civil War. I recall reading, perhaps in one of McPherson's works, that the smell of one of them, weeks later, could overwhelm a person miles away. Cleanup wasn't easy, evidently. It seemed to take a while for government, citizenry and military to figure out it needed to be done, who should do it, how it should be done. (The battles about all this are still going on, for instance, re Ground Zero.).
An online friend, who I have never met, but we share friends that we both have spent much real world time with, lives 20 miles from Gettysburg. Her husband is a battlefield nerd, and the Gettysburg guides are his friends, while he himself knows as much, if not more than they do. She is making offers.
My problem is that nothing runs directly to Gettysburg itself. But she's working on that. We shall see.
Love, C.
From a brief, quick google, it seems that most battlefields were cleared by the troops of the side still standing at the conclusion.
I wonder if there was a truce post Gettysburg, and if Lee was able to reclaim the dead bodies of his armies and take them with him?
One doubts this. Mostly, these were mass graves, with some effort to mass a company's dead together, and so on.
Over 1 million horses were killed in the course of the Civil War. I knew that. The dead horses and mules and the parts had to be dealt with too.
You can read, for instance, Alexander Downing's full text Civil War Diary on google books. He talks about this.
Love, C.
Uh, gee, Buchanan was knocked out of top spot? I wonder, wonder who could have replaced him? Hmmm.
By the way, I notice that according to your profile, your occupation is "revolutionary." Definitly my kind of person. On another blog of mine, I have under occupation "student, mother, full-time citizen of the republic."
"like all magic outsiders:"
Love this phrase!!
Funny, I have always wondered about the post-battle cleanups as well.
Thanks for the tip about "Jarhead." My husband was in the military for 22 years and has seen most similar films as they've been released, but he missed that one. I will get it this week. I have the Blockbuster thing where you order movies online and they mail them to you. I love it because you can get obscure titles that are not in the stores.
A million horses? I had no idea.
My husband's great-great grandfather (it's either 2 or 3 greats; I'm too tired to calculate it at the moment), joined Butler's First Infantry in South Carolina and was at Fort Sumter the day the war started. He and his brothers, from Spartenburg, all enlisted the very week that South Carolina officials voted to secede. The brothers were at the battle for Fort Wagner (depicted in the movie "Glory"). One brother kept earning the rank of sergeant and then getting busted to a lower rank (I thought this was hilarious when this came up in my research because when my husband made the rank of sergeant at the same time as did several of his friends, so many of his friends kept getting busted that the running joke was that they were all going to just attach their stripes with Velco - for ease of removal!). One brother was reported to have died in the battle for Fort Wagner, as he was last seen by his comrades lying on the ground, shot through the head. Weeks later, however, he was on a list of Confederates taken prisoner, but by then the family had thought him dead for several weeks. And the other brother (and this is what made me think of it tonight, your comment about the million horses) joined as a member of the calvary, but had his horse shot during the first weeks of the war. His family did not have another horse for him and for weeks, he fought getting transferred out of the calvalry and into the infantry, but apparently if you don't have a horse, you don't stay in the calvalry for long and so over to the infantry he went.
I have a really interesting letter from an Irish ancestor who was in the Confederate Navy. He describes slipping past the blockade of New Orleans, overtaking and seizing a number of northern ships (he gives their names, and my recent research shows that it's all historically accurate), and eventually being a prisoner at Fort Prebble in Portland, Maine.
Sorry for the ramble...I should not be allowed a keyboard when I'm tired.
Hai! NolaRadfem! Your blog is fascinating. I thank K very much for pointing it out.
A million horses -- and the number of mules, who pulled the artillery and supply trains weren't mentioned. As usual, only the aristocracy makes it into history, the horses of the cavalry. Must have been a good time to be a horse breeder and trader in those first years post the Civil War, don't you think?
I did figure out that mostly the battlefield cleanup was done by the troops of the side still standing on the field. But how did it work post-Gettysburg? Did Lee retreat immediately, or was there a gentleman's truce while both sides buried their dead? This information can be found.
But still, I'm puzzled when looking at other primary document sources such as letters and journals by those who lived in the area of the battlefields, who wrote of the unspeakable stench of decaying body parts days and weeks later.
Again, thank you for such an interesting and informative response to these matters and others!
Love, c.
I'm pretty certain that Lee retreated the next day. He had been badly mauled and was desperate to ford the Potomac and get back to Virginia. Hindsight is 20-20, but had Meade felt able to pursue, there's a good chance he could have destroyed Lee's army.
That's what I've always thought I understood too, K, that Lee's first priority was to get the fark back to Virginia.
It would take nothing to find out certainly, but I've been occupied with a few other things lately, that pushed Grant to the sidelines this last week. Dang!
Love, C.
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