Being born in Mississippi and raised in Texas, even though I don't really agree with the ideology of the south it's amazing how emotional you get about your ancestors when watching this movie.
I am of the North, but my ancestors fought for the confederacy (Louisiana: infantry and cavalry). I have great admiration and pride for the South, but grateful for the union and our great country. The Civil War very much defined us as a nation, and that is good.
There are so many what ifs in this battle. What if Ewell had succeeded in placing rebel artillery on big round top. What if Chamberlain got over run on little round top. What if Jeb Stuart had been within earshot of Lee's army and was able to give info on enemy movements. Amazing how history could have gone either way.
I disagree with the South's cause for war, and am a Union man at heart. But I honor the courage and fortitude it took to make this charge. Those were some brave men.
I love this movie. I never knew the horrors, the heroism or the sacrifice of the Civil War until I saw this movie. And the music was so great, the casting was perfect (Sam Elliot and Jeff Daniels were great in this) and the epic battles were worthy of love from war movie fans like me.
same that Gen. Armistead was kiilled at the wall with a sword with his hat on it. and here is another interesting fact, Genral Pattons grandfather fought here but was killed at the fence as seen in the movie.
You forgot about the fence when they launched that attack. Some think the battle might have gone differently if it wasn't there slowing them up and breaking their formations.
Yes, you're right. On IMDb it's classified as "Incorrectly regarded as goofs." It's a puzzling illusion, though - the coloured part of the flag looks terribly like a van's windscreen.
The Last Romantic Charge : Brave Infantrymen of the Pickett´s Division of the Old Virginia against the Yankee Frontline of thousands of heavy guns. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Morning of the 3th July 1863.
The flanks were attacked for two days. Lee had theorized that the Union had already pulled troops out of the center to reinforce the flanks, which is why the decision for the assault on the center was made.
General Lewis Armstead, also a Virginian like General Lee (General Lee was played by Martin Sheen)...General Lee never took part in any of the actual action...this was a march that consisted of 11 brigades, not 3 as the movie portrays...plus at the actual battle General Armstead was commanding a brigade in the very rear of the march to reinforce the main few waves...
Lee's alleged minor stroke was discussed once or twice in North & South Magazine, but there was no conclusive evidence for it. He had, however, been suffering from severe sciatica at the time. The constant pain plus the fatigue from the campaign could have worn him down severely. In the film, he is correctly depicted as sleeping in a chair, unable to lie down.
This, aside from Little Round Top, is like, so the best part of the movie. GO UNION!!!! Also, I noticed, at 1:30 you hear the Confederates shout like Indians, oddly enough. Good quality.
In lots of wars" The Troops learn Fast" on how to really fight the Battles. The trouble is "The Officers that have been to Officers Training School" don't want to listen to Lower-Ranking troops! Just Like in Iraq!
Vicksburg surrendered to Grant the following day which was the final step in putting the Mississippi River under Union control and split the confederacy. I don't think they would have been able to hold out even if the south had been successful at Gettysburg. Washington D. C. was also very well defended so Lee would've still needed to attack it. I just don't think the south was ever really close to winning outright.
My ancester, Carl, was in the 1st Minnesota infantry at gettysburg he helped stop the virginian charge he killed 4 confederates! he came home a hero! My family still has the rifle that he used! Minnesota still owns the captured virginia flag from gettysburg! Virgina wants it back but our governor said "Too bad, you shouldn't have supported slavery!" lol
@lendir1 Many historians agree that the concept of "states rights" was in some part an excuse to justify the South's rights to run their states as they saw fit-which included the concept of holding slaves. In the end, what specific rights did the North intend to take from the South? Nothing, except slavery. I'm from PA, too, and one of my relatives was Maj. Gen. Reynolds. As much as i have read about the Civil War, it was about the Union being held whole, and the rights of all Americans.
Jackson and Longstreet together could have convinced Lee to hold the field and not charge. It was glorious madness. Such a waste. If Lee had retired to defendable ground the South would have come within a gnats cock of winning the war. Stonewall forever.........
Not a single Southern state even voted for Lincoln. Lincoln wasn't on the ballot in most Southern states. With that in mind, imagine how most Southerners felt when Lincoln was elected. It isn't hard to imagine how the South felt politically powerless and desired secession.
Less than 1/10 of one percent of southerners owned slaves. Southern aristocracy definitely tipped the south into war, but you have to realize that all those soldiers who fought and died for the south did NOT do so to keep slaves. It is VERY complex issue - Shades of gray, not black and white.
@popeiix oh really? I'm one of those damnyankees but I respect the hell out of the Southerners. They made their stand, and that counts for something. They had more balls than you ever will. And remember, every soldier, Northern and Southern, was an American.
He really was. Between the battle of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg the ammunition plant in Richmond, which produced their regular ammo, burned down. So during the battle of Gettysburg they were using ammunition from a Charleston plan, and that ammunition had a different fuse setup so it shot differently. The problem was that nobody told Alexander of the change. His biggest mistake was not letting the smoke clear enough so he could see where they were shooting.
Richard Brooke Garnett wasn't wearing his dress uniform when he led his men forward[given the challenge of finding suitable uniforms, many officers didn't wear their dress uniforms on campaign], he was wearing plain clothing and an old blue overcoat with no rank distinctions. Which is why his body was never identified and buried in a mass grave with many of his men. His sword was found decades later in a collectible shop in Maryland.
Hitler never rated the American fighting spirit until it was too late. He should have studied the American Civil War and learn from the bravery they demonstrated 🇬🇧
God bless all those men and boys for dying in a war that they didn't want and those men would rather die than surrender to the enemy. Bless their souls. People had more of a fighting spirit back then than nowadays.
I was in Gettysburg this afternoon. Walked around the battlefield & Little Round Top for a bit. Great place to spend the afternoon with all of its history.
If only more Americans today would display this spirit and determination in face of our enemies today!!!! these men knew what they were up against and went forward bravely nonetheless. The only way our republic will be defeated is by within.
That movie ranks among the very best war movies ever filmed. This particular scene is my favourite, especially because of the powerful music. This combination gives me goosebumps!
Pardon? From the very earliest battles men had worked out that if you killed the enemy leaders/officers first the rest was that much easier. As soon as weaponry became sophisticated enough for it to be possible to aim at specific targets, officers were those targets.
Haste, pride and impatience. That is the lesson that we can all learn from when reviewing history. Don't make the same mistake in your life's dealings.
This scene gets me every time. The first time I saw it, I cried my eyes out. It is a brilliant piece of filming and editing. One especially well-done aspect is how the drums slowly fade into and become the background music. Randy Edelman is a genius.
Since the Union stopped firing their cannon, the Confederates believed they had destroyed the enemy center. So, Lee ordered Pickett's Men forward, believing they would march over the stone wall, and win Gettysburg.
The courage the first column of soldiers must have had when charging the enemy position. You know that your only purpose is to absorb lead so that the men behind you might stand a chance of breaking through.
This movie was great and with the various actors. Fairly accurate to the real events which occurred during this battle. But looking at why this event occurred, the civil war that is, the seeds were sowed back to the english civil war. Settlers for Georgia and the Carolinas were defeated monarchist once Cromwell was victorious. During our constitutional convention, bigotry and prejudice were ignored, and articles and amendments were allowed in the Constitution . Even today if you " clear the smoke" around trump.and his suggorates you see many of his followers wanting to return to the thinking!!
What number of men did each army have at Gettysburg? North: 90,000? South: 70,000? I'm not sure if this is the correct amount but, i think i remember something like that.
Despite its cherry-picking and occasional inaccuracies I enjoy this film, except for . . . . the incessant faux inspirational music played so often that even by the halfway point of the film has become gaggingly awful and irritating. Of the hundreds of thousands of men in this battle not too many of them were looking to be 'inspirational', they were looking to kill the men opposite them. Cheers!
Gettysburg was an awful clean up and burial opperation afterward too. The intense heat decayed the bodies very quickly. The smell was so bad that some people who worked on the burials died later on. One eye-witness said that a fence from Picket's charge which had dead soldiers pilled on it was black with flies.
My great great grandfather was in Kemper's brigade, he was in the Virginia 7th Infantry Co.D but he survived Gettysburg and went on to be captured at the battle of Five Forks a year later and became a prisoner of war at Point Lookout, Maryland.
The whole formation thing made sense in the days of swords and shields, when the men could overlap their shields, for greater protection. It even worked in the early days of firearms, when firearms weren't too accurate. By the mid-1800's, firearms had become deadly accurate, which is one reason why Civil War carnage was so terrible.
Maryland isn't part of the south. I will agree to that. Actually during the Civil War though, Maryland actually was going to vote on whether to become part of the Confederacy. But, since the capitol would have been surrounded by the Confederacy, Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus, by doing this he could throw anyone in jail for long time periods without telling them why they were arrested. Lincoln had all the opposition arrested in MD, and without them, MD remained part of the union.
anyways, slavery was one of the various important causes of the war. When Blacks joined the Federals, Confederates threatened to kill every captured Black. Slavery was also the backbone of Southern economy, since they provided cheap source of labour in Southern farms. This is just one of many important matters in which the North and the South disagreed with each other and finally turned against one another. Basically, Southern states wanted to be free and able to make their own decisions.
The war was started because the south wanted to leave the union and start their own country. But to make sure france and britian ,the countires the south traded with, stayed out of the war Lincoln changed it into a war agaisnt slavery(since britian and france didnt support slaves)..
@Mumakil42 I Agree! I'm a confederate sympathiser because my relatives were in a virginia regiment, and when i said that i was a southern sympathiser in middle school history class (im in 8th grade) my TEACHER said i was racist!
@cdonnellyful Yeah, I'm a Yank and do respect at how the Rebs fought in the Civil war, and Gettysburg especially. I still do not agree with what they were fighting for, but from a historical perspective they get much respect from me.
If I were in the American Civil War, I would be in the Union Army. In the Battle of Gettysburg I would be a field commander, and if a Confederate cavalry charge the Union infantry line I would command the troops to fix bayonets and form squares.
lue armistead is possibly the most under apreciated commander that i know of that played a big part. along with garnett who was turned into paint when he chraged the angle.
In the 19th century, states were more like seperate countries. They had all gained independence seperately. Lee was turning his back on a man who would attack what Lincoln himself believed to be his own people. I know it's not exactly the same (in many ways it is), but I am sure we would be honouring any of Hitler's officers who turned their back on Hitler for the way he killed his own people, oath or no. The thing is that these people were not Lincoln's to control. That's why it all kicked off
@davidlawrence000 Lee didn't fail to see the movement away from slavery, as he released the slaves he inherited. In fact, many of the Confderate Generals of high aristocratic status refused to own slaves. Stonewall Jackson even founded church groups for black people. My thoughts are that you are trying to have your cake and eat it too. You correctly that there was at this time an 'inevitable movement away from slavery'. Indeed, other civilised nations were ending slavery WITHOUT civil wars....
@Mahbu It's easy to sit in judgment now knowing all we know about the circumstances and what both sides were doing. Lee had had great success overcoming clear advantages the North had in many battles. Union officer incompetence aided that. Meade was a new, untried commander, junior to Reynolds and other experienced Union officers. Lee felt his track record in battle would help him prevail. If the South had won at Gettysburg, they could have forced the North to sue for peace.
@Sexpistols15151 How you perceive the "Stars and Bars" is irrelevant, for you it's just a symbol. For African-Americans, it is a symbol of oppression and bondage. Being "liberal" has nothing to do with it. Politics is perception, and those on different sides had different perceptions. You may not agree with those perceptions, but that doesn't take away the fact that they exist and are the basis for beliefs on both sides.
@Mumakil42 2 Months later, but yeah...I have ancestors who fought on the Confed. side, so I tend to have sympathy, but there's no way the Civil War wasn't about slavery. The entire economy of the South was based on slavery. States with the highest concentrations of plantations were the first to secede. Of course there was more to the war than slavery alone, but slavery was the main cause. Racism has been a major part of America since its founding. About time everyone accepted it.
@TheNmg21 "Come and listen to my story `bout a man named Jed, Poor Mountaineer, barely kept his family fed. Then one day he was shootin` at some food and up thru the ground come a bubblin crude... Oil, that is! Black Gold! Texas Tea!! Now the first thing you know Jed`s a millionaire! Kin folk said, "Jed! Move away from here!..." California is the place ya ought to be, So they loaded up the truck and Moved to Beverly. Hill that is!!"
@TheNmg21 The most famous American TV show of the 1960`s was called The Beverly Hillbillies. A comedy about Ozark Mountain trash who strike oil by accident and move to LA. Granny was in their family and soo old she remembered the Civil War first hand. Always got the family in trouble by making moonshine or pointing her musket at traffic cops etc. YOU TUBE Beverly Hillbillies theme to get the rest of the story...
I attended the 135th anniversary in 1998, it was awesome!!! The re-enactors made it so authentic!! I attended the ceremony for the unveiling of the General Longstreet bronze statue! As the tarp was removed, revealing General Longstreet, the large crowd began to sing “Bonnie Blue Flag”! It was stunning!! It was an incredible experience!! Standing on the ground where the battle occurred is awesome! I later joined “American Battlefield Trust” to help preserve places like Gettysburg!🫡🇺🇸
@Mumakil42 I have lived my entire life in the north, Pa. to be more precise. The people I meet that "truly" study the American Civil War understand it was (and still is to a certain extent) about states rights, an issue that had not been resolved from as far back as the revolutionary war. Some of those people that hold to the idea that it was all slavery need to really look at American history.
I doubt it - the average age of a rebel soldier in 1863 was 19 - assuming a man reproduces at the age of 20 ( average) then it would of been their great grandsons in 1944 (born in 1924) - dont forget it was the great grandsons of the union soldiers who were fighting in France too. Oliver Hardy who died in 1957 and was born in 1896 or thereabouts had a father of the same name who fought in The Alabama regiment at Antietam.
@noleybo56 Interesting; I didn't know that Davis tried to pawn off the responsibility on Beauregard. I know that Davis did give Hood a stern upbraiding for his high casualties in his three sorties against Sherman at Atlanta. There was bad blood between Davis and Beauregard, stemming from Beauregard's decision not to continue the assault at Shiloh in '62 after the death of A.S. Johnston.
@galoon Again you're on the money.but here's a strange tale.Some years after the war Jeff Davis tried to exempt himself from complicity in Hood's project. Going as far to calling the invasion "ill -advised," in his memoirs he states he had no knowledge of Hoods intentions whatever.The premise was to shadow and engage Sherman where possible. In fact he lays the blame at Beauregard feet for forcing the invasion into Mid Tenn on Hood. Now, I wonder why he has no reccollection of this matter...
Being born in Mississippi and raised in Texas, even though I don't really agree with the ideology of the south it's amazing how emotional you get about your ancestors when watching this movie.
I am of the North, but my ancestors fought for the confederacy (Louisiana: infantry and cavalry). I have great admiration and pride for the South, but grateful for the union and our great country. The Civil War very much defined us as a nation, and that is good.
There are so many what ifs in this battle. What if Ewell had succeeded in placing rebel artillery on big round top. What if Chamberlain got over run on little round top. What if Jeb Stuart had been within earshot of Lee's army and was able to give info on enemy movements. Amazing how history could have gone either way.
We can play that same game with every battle in the civil war.
I disagree with the South's cause for war, and am a Union man at heart. But I honor the courage and fortitude it took to make this charge. Those were some brave men.
Úžasný film. Pozdravujem zo Slovenska
I love this movie. I never knew the horrors, the heroism or the sacrifice of the Civil War until I saw this movie. And the music was so great, the casting was perfect (Sam Elliot and Jeff Daniels were great in this) and the epic battles were worthy of love from war movie fans like me.
Best part of the film. The reenacting groups made a wonderful job.
same that Gen. Armistead was kiilled at the wall with a sword with his hat on it. and here is another interesting fact, Genral Pattons grandfather fought here but was killed at the fence as seen in the movie.
Great movie and super part!!
You forgot about the fence when they launched that attack. Some think the battle might have gone differently if it wasn't there slowing them up and breaking their formations.
The technology outpaced the tactics.
Yes, you're right. On IMDb it's classified as "Incorrectly regarded as goofs." It's a puzzling illusion, though - the coloured part of the flag looks terribly like a van's windscreen.
The Last Romantic Charge : Brave Infantrymen of the Pickett´s Division of the Old Virginia against the Yankee Frontline of thousands of heavy guns. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Morning of the 3th July 1863.
The flanks were attacked for two days. Lee had theorized that the Union had already pulled troops out of the center to reinforce the flanks, which is why the decision for the assault on the center was made.
Yes, I know what you mean. Native Americans were HERE since the beginning of history, long before the colonization of other people.
@VictorLepanto: Addendum: It is so weird watching the same actor play both Picket & Jackson.
Grant may have been a drunk, but he was the best General the Union ever had.
That I did not know. Thank you for that.
5:52 - is that a white van driving along in the background?
General Lewis Armstead, also a Virginian like General Lee (General Lee was played by Martin Sheen)...General Lee never took part in any of the actual action...this was a march that consisted of 11 brigades, not 3 as the movie portrays...plus at the actual battle General Armstead was commanding a brigade in the very rear of the march to reinforce the main few waves...
The point being, it takes time for military tactics to catch up with new technology.
Lee's alleged minor stroke was discussed once or twice in North & South Magazine, but there was no conclusive evidence for it. He had, however, been suffering from severe sciatica at the time. The constant pain plus the fatigue from the campaign could have worn him down severely. In the film, he is correctly depicted as sleeping in a chair, unable to lie down.
Tom Berengers beard .... nuff said !
This, aside from Little Round Top, is like, so the best part of the movie. GO UNION!!!!
Also, I noticed, at 1:30 you hear the Confederates shout like Indians, oddly enough. Good quality.
Rebel yell.
no. from "Gettysburg" 1993. "Gods and Generals" 2002
Actually ,President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863...Gettysburg was in July of that same year.
In lots of wars" The Troops learn Fast" on how to really fight the Battles. The trouble is "The Officers that have been to Officers Training School" don't want to listen to Lower-Ranking troops! Just Like in Iraq!
Vicksburg surrendered to Grant the following day which was the final step in putting the Mississippi River under Union control and split the confederacy. I don't think they would have been able to hold out even if the south had been successful at Gettysburg.
Washington D. C. was also very well defended so Lee would've still needed to attack it. I just don't think the south was ever really close to winning outright.
The lost of vicksburg was more damaging to the south then the battle of gettysburg.
My ancester, Carl, was in the 1st Minnesota infantry at gettysburg he helped stop the virginian charge he killed 4 confederates! he came home a hero! My family still has the rifle that he used! Minnesota still owns the captured virginia flag from gettysburg! Virgina wants it back but our governor said "Too bad, you shouldn't have supported slavery!" lol
I think Stephen Lang put in a better performance as General Jackson in Gods and Generals. Still a good performance here as well.
yea i think ur right. if they ran a mile in the heat with all that stuff on they wouldnt have been in any shape to fight.
@galoon Could it possibly be that he despise the man [Beauregard] ?
The war went on needlessly for 2 years. After July 4th 1863, all the blood is on Davis and Lee's hands. By the way, Virginian born and bred here,
@lendir1 Many historians agree that the concept of "states rights" was in some part an excuse to justify the South's rights to run their states as they saw fit-which included the concept of holding slaves. In the end, what specific rights did the North intend to take from the South? Nothing, except slavery. I'm from PA, too, and one of my relatives was Maj. Gen. Reynolds. As much as i have read about the Civil War, it was about the Union being held whole, and the rights of all Americans.
Jackson and Longstreet together could have convinced Lee to hold the field and not charge. It was glorious madness. Such a waste. If Lee had retired to defendable ground the South would have come within a gnats cock of winning the war. Stonewall forever.........
Not a single Southern state even voted for Lincoln. Lincoln wasn't on the ballot in most Southern states. With that in mind, imagine how most Southerners felt when Lincoln was elected. It isn't hard to imagine how the South felt politically powerless and desired secession.
Ricordiamo i valorosi soldati del Regno delle due Sicilie che combatterono a Gettysbourgh con i confederati
If he did say that he missed his opportunity because thats exactly what this war was about. That and nothing else bud.
Less than 1/10 of one percent of southerners owned slaves. Southern aristocracy definitely tipped the south into war, but you have to realize that all those soldiers who fought and died for the south did NOT do so to keep slaves. It is VERY complex issue - Shades of gray, not black and white.
Did Pickett's Charge really take this long???
@popeiix
oh really? I'm one of those damnyankees but I respect the hell out of the Southerners. They made their stand, and that counts for something.
They had more balls than you ever will.
And remember, every soldier, Northern and Southern, was an American.
He really was. Between the battle of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg the ammunition plant in Richmond, which produced their regular ammo, burned down. So during the battle of Gettysburg they were using ammunition from a Charleston plan, and that ammunition had a different fuse setup so it shot differently. The problem was that nobody told Alexander of the change. His biggest mistake was not letting the smoke clear enough so he could see where they were shooting.
Such a great movie. Never gets old
The fact no cgi was done for this movie and everything was almost 100% accurate to the time, makes this movie the best civil war movie ever
Richard Brooke Garnett wasn't wearing his dress uniform when he led his men forward[given the challenge of finding suitable uniforms, many officers didn't wear their dress uniforms on campaign], he was wearing plain clothing and an old blue overcoat with no rank distinctions. Which is why his body was never identified and buried in a mass grave with many of his men. His sword was found decades later in a collectible shop in Maryland.
147 years to the day, this still resonates with millions. The bravery of the men who fought in the American Civil War is amazing.
The music was just Great I play it all the time and its a great feeling
Hitler never rated the American fighting spirit until it was too late. He should have studied the American Civil War and learn from the bravery they demonstrated 🇬🇧
God bless all those men and boys for dying in a war that they didn't want and those men would rather die than surrender to the enemy. Bless their souls. People had more of a fighting spirit back then than nowadays.
This is America's future if we don't change things soon...
Those battle drums get me so pumped up!!!
I was in Gettysburg this afternoon. Walked around the battlefield & Little Round Top for a bit. Great place to spend the afternoon with all of its history.
It must have been impressive to see all of those men marching and just as depressing to look back and see no one coming from behind you.
What was Robert E Lee thinking? This was just plain suicide
This is the best scene of this movie.
Music, (mini)helicopter view...
Great scene.
If only more Americans today would display this spirit and determination in face of our enemies today!!!! these men knew what they were up against and went forward bravely nonetheless. The only way our republic will be defeated is by within.
I'm from the south and I'm damn proud of it
So many great actors. made this movie good as gold
That movie ranks among the very best war movies ever filmed. This particular scene is my favourite, especially because of the powerful music. This combination gives me goosebumps!
Pardon? From the very earliest battles men had worked out that if you killed the enemy leaders/officers first the rest was that much easier. As soon as weaponry became sophisticated enough for it to be possible to aim at specific targets, officers were those targets.
Like today with Hamos.
Haste, pride and impatience. That is the lesson that we can all learn from when reviewing history. Don't make the same mistake in your life's dealings.
This scene gets me every time. The first time I saw it, I cried my eyes out. It is a brilliant piece of filming and editing. One especially well-done aspect is how the drums slowly fade into and become the background music. Randy Edelman is a genius.
Didnt anyone else notice the odd discoloration of the fields at 5:20?
“Up men! Up!
And to your posts.
And Let No Man Forget Today, That You Are From Old Virginia!
VIRGINIA!!!
VIRGINIA!!
VIRGINIA!
Since the Union stopped firing their cannon, the Confederates believed they had destroyed the enemy center. So, Lee ordered Pickett's Men forward, believing they would march over the stone wall, and win Gettysburg.
The courage the first column of soldiers must have had when charging the enemy position. You know that your only purpose is to absorb lead so that the men behind you might stand a chance of breaking through.
This movie was great and with the various actors. Fairly accurate to the real events which occurred during this battle. But looking at why this event occurred, the civil war that is, the seeds were sowed back to the english civil war. Settlers for Georgia and the Carolinas were defeated monarchist once Cromwell was victorious.
During our constitutional convention, bigotry and prejudice were ignored, and articles and amendments were allowed in the Constitution . Even today if you " clear the smoke" around trump.and his suggorates you see many of his followers wanting to return to the thinking!!
What number of men did each army have at Gettysburg?
North: 90,000?
South: 70,000?
I'm not sure if this is the correct amount but, i think i remember something like that.
Despite its cherry-picking and occasional inaccuracies I enjoy this film, except for . . . . the incessant faux inspirational music played so often that even by the halfway point of the film has become gaggingly awful and irritating. Of the hundreds of thousands of men in this battle not too many of them were looking to be 'inspirational', they were looking to kill the men opposite them. Cheers!
On the contrary. Lee had no doubt that he would win at Gettysburg. In his own words he said he thought they were invincible.
Gettysburg was an awful clean up and burial opperation afterward too. The intense heat decayed the bodies very quickly. The smell was so bad that some people who worked on the burials died later on. One eye-witness said that a fence from Picket's charge which had dead soldiers pilled on it was black with flies.
My great great grandfather was in Kemper's brigade, he was in the Virginia 7th Infantry Co.D but he survived Gettysburg and went on to be captured at the battle of Five Forks a year later and became a prisoner of war at Point Lookout, Maryland.
The whole formation thing made sense in the days of swords and shields, when the men could overlap their shields, for greater protection. It even worked in the early days of firearms, when firearms weren't too accurate. By the mid-1800's, firearms had become deadly accurate, which is one reason why Civil War carnage was so terrible.
Maryland isn't part of the south. I will agree to that. Actually during the Civil War though, Maryland actually was going to vote on whether to become part of the Confederacy. But, since the capitol would have been surrounded by the Confederacy, Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus, by doing this he could throw anyone in jail for long time periods without telling them why they were arrested. Lincoln had all the opposition arrested in MD, and without them, MD remained part of the union.
anyways, slavery was one of the various important causes of the war. When Blacks joined the Federals, Confederates threatened to kill every captured Black. Slavery was also the backbone of Southern economy, since they provided cheap source of labour in Southern farms. This is just one of many important matters in which the North and the South disagreed with each other and finally turned against one another. Basically, Southern states wanted to be free and able to make their own decisions.
The war was started because the south wanted to leave the union and start their own country. But to make sure france and britian ,the countires the south traded with, stayed out of the war Lincoln changed it into a war agaisnt slavery(since britian and france didnt support slaves)..
Imagine having to travel over a mile with enemy guns firing at you . This plan was a disaster from minute 1.
@Mumakil42 I Agree! I'm a confederate sympathiser because my relatives were in a virginia regiment, and when i said that i was a southern sympathiser in middle school history class (im in 8th grade) my TEACHER said i was racist!
@cdonnellyful Yeah, I'm a Yank and do respect at how the Rebs fought in the Civil war, and Gettysburg especially. I still do not agree with what they were fighting for, but from a historical perspective they get much respect from me.
If I were in the American Civil War, I would be in the Union Army. In the Battle of Gettysburg I would be a field commander, and if a Confederate cavalry charge the Union infantry line I would command the troops to fix bayonets and form squares.
I had ancestors on both sides one in the Irish infantry and one on the 150th infantry Pennsylvania and one on the confederacy
Doesn't take brains or education to preform a stupid act based on emotions. A military blunder.
hopefully we'll know in heaven
how can the shear stupidity of pickett's charge be so glorified ?
@Mumakil42
During the time prior to the Civil War the South had almost complete control over American politics. Get your facts right.
lue armistead is possibly the most under apreciated commander that i know of that played a big part. along with garnett who was turned into paint when he chraged the angle.
What's the name of the march the drums play at the beginning of the march. I've looked all over and haven't found it.
In the 19th century, states were more like seperate countries. They had all gained independence seperately. Lee was turning his back on a man who would attack what Lincoln himself believed to be his own people. I know it's not exactly the same (in many ways it is), but I am sure we would be honouring any of Hitler's officers who turned their back on Hitler for the way he killed his own people, oath or no.
The thing is that these people were not Lincoln's to control. That's why it all kicked off
@davidlawrence000
Lee didn't fail to see the movement away from slavery, as he released the slaves he inherited. In fact, many of the Confderate Generals of high aristocratic status refused to own slaves. Stonewall Jackson even founded church groups for black people.
My thoughts are that you are trying to have your cake and eat it too. You correctly that there was at this time an 'inevitable movement away from slavery'. Indeed, other civilised nations were ending slavery WITHOUT civil wars....
@Mahbu It's easy to sit in judgment now knowing all we know about the circumstances and what both sides were doing. Lee had had great success overcoming clear advantages the North had in many battles. Union officer incompetence aided that. Meade was a new, untried commander, junior to Reynolds and other experienced Union officers. Lee felt his track record in battle would help him prevail. If the South had won at Gettysburg, they could have forced the North to sue for peace.
@Sexpistols15151 How you perceive the "Stars and Bars" is irrelevant, for you it's just a symbol. For African-Americans, it is a symbol of oppression and bondage. Being "liberal" has nothing to do with it. Politics is perception, and those on different sides had different perceptions. You may not agree with those perceptions, but that doesn't take away the fact that they exist and are the basis for beliefs on both sides.
@Mumakil42 2 Months later, but yeah...I have ancestors who fought on the Confed. side, so I tend to have sympathy, but there's no way the Civil War wasn't about slavery. The entire economy of the South was based on slavery. States with the highest concentrations of plantations were the first to secede. Of course there was more to the war than slavery alone, but slavery was the main cause. Racism has been a major part of America since its founding. About time everyone accepted it.
@TheNmg21 "Come and listen to my story `bout a man named Jed,
Poor Mountaineer, barely kept his family fed.
Then one day he was shootin` at some food and up thru the ground come a bubblin crude... Oil, that is! Black Gold! Texas Tea!! Now the first thing you know Jed`s a millionaire! Kin folk said, "Jed! Move away from here!..."
California is the place ya ought to be, So they loaded up the truck and Moved to Beverly. Hill that is!!"
@TheNmg21 The most famous American TV show of the 1960`s was called The Beverly Hillbillies. A comedy about Ozark Mountain trash who strike oil by accident and move to LA. Granny was in their family and soo old she remembered the Civil War first hand. Always got the family in trouble by making moonshine or pointing her musket at traffic cops etc. YOU TUBE Beverly Hillbillies theme to get the rest of the story...
I attended the 135th anniversary in 1998, it was awesome!!! The re-enactors made it so authentic!!
I attended the ceremony for the unveiling of the General Longstreet bronze statue! As the tarp was removed, revealing General Longstreet, the large crowd began to sing “Bonnie Blue Flag”! It was stunning!!
It was an incredible experience!! Standing on the ground where the battle occurred is awesome! I later joined “American Battlefield Trust” to help preserve places like Gettysburg!🫡🇺🇸
@Mumakil42 I have lived my entire life in the north, Pa. to be more precise. The people I meet that "truly" study the American Civil War understand it was (and still is to a certain extent) about states rights, an issue that had not been resolved from as far back as the revolutionary war. Some of those people that hold to the idea that it was all slavery need to really look at American history.
I doubt it - the average age of a rebel soldier in 1863 was 19 - assuming a man reproduces at the age of 20 ( average) then it would of been their great grandsons in 1944 (born in 1924) - dont forget it was the great grandsons of the union soldiers who were fighting in France too. Oliver Hardy who died in 1957 and was born in 1896 or thereabouts had a father of the same name who fought in The Alabama regiment at Antietam.
@noleybo56 Interesting; I didn't know that Davis tried to pawn off the responsibility on Beauregard. I know that Davis did give Hood a stern upbraiding for his high casualties in his three sorties against Sherman at Atlanta. There was bad blood between Davis and Beauregard, stemming from Beauregard's decision not to continue the assault at Shiloh in '62 after the death of A.S. Johnston.
@galoon Again you're on the money.but here's a strange tale.Some years after the war Jeff Davis tried to exempt himself from complicity in Hood's project. Going as far to calling the invasion "ill -advised," in his memoirs he states he had no knowledge of Hoods intentions whatever.The premise was to shadow and engage Sherman where possible. In fact he lays the blame at Beauregard feet for forcing the invasion into Mid Tenn on Hood. Now, I wonder why he has no reccollection of this matter...