Sheridan Lives!
I've always enjoyed Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels, and the movie adaptation, Gettysburg, and I wholeheartedly recommend both of them to anyone who is reading this. I saw Gods and Generals today, which claimed to be the prequel to Gettysburg. I thought it was pretty enjoyable for those who are interested in Civil War history, though it didn't have as much of the sense of a story, and failed to evoke the same emotions as Gettysburg. This was probably why the movie didn't enjoy the same commercial success as Gettysburg. It also felt at times like a biography of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, which is okay as he is one of the central characters of the first two years of the Civil War, though I suppose I would have enjoyed it more if the film had developed many of the other characters it seemed to only touch upon. I'm talking about people such as Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, Winfield Scott Hancock, and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, characters to whom the Killer Angels gave a more balanced treatment.
However, the reason that I bring this up is because I was surprised to see that in Gods and Generals, Longstreet happened to be...Captain John Sheridan! Not only that, but it was a Captain John Sheridan with a rather fake looking beard. I was doing my best to imagine him as Longstreet, but I kept on involuntarily thinking, "You know, forget cannons, all he has to do is call in the White Star fleet and the Army of the Potomac is doomed."
However, the reason that I bring this up is because I was surprised to see that in Gods and Generals, Longstreet happened to be...Captain John Sheridan! Not only that, but it was a Captain John Sheridan with a rather fake looking beard. I was doing my best to imagine him as Longstreet, but I kept on involuntarily thinking, "You know, forget cannons, all he has to do is call in the White Star fleet and the Army of the Potomac is doomed."