Civil War trivia/little known detail

[1001cranes]

Setting is today, one character is a history buff who knows a lot about the American Civil War era, the other character is a vampire who actually lived through it. The scene involves them kind of geeking out over either a) a small, nitpicky bit of civil war trivia they would be watching in some kind of TV special, or b) pointing out some historical

Comments

[janewilliams20]

The ACW geek I'm married to can't think of any historical errors off-hand, but points out that "Gods and Generals" has some fun continuity errors involving beards. I think he's going to be interested in reading the answers you get :)

[nuranar]

The big one I can think of is the use of the Gatling gun. The Gatling is barely even a period weapon, and although supposedly it saw a couple instances of use in combat, it was never standard issue and very, very rare. That doesn't stop it from showing up ALL THE TIME in movies, and not just bad ones. It's not a *tiny nitpicky* thing, but you would definitely have to know more than a little bit about the Civil War, and specifically, the weapons, to understand how highly inappropriate it is in almost every situation.

Some things in Gettysburg: One in Pickett's charge, when one of the mid/long-distance shots shows a bayonet getting caught on something and bending - they were obviously using rubber bayonets instead of real ones for filming that scene, and the editors missed it

[nuranar]

Another one - the last battle of the war was fought in far South Texas, I believe in June of 1865, two months after Lee's surrender. I believe the Confederates won. ;)

[1001cranes]

awesome! you get a cookie!

[nuranar]

Yay! :)

[stickmaker]

In Kentucky, we only half joke when we note that nearly every battle in our Commonwealth was within walking distance of a distillery. :-)

More seriously, Frankfort, the capital, was shelled by a Southern gunboat. The target could have been the Armory, the actual capital building, or a combination. This resulted in the construction of a fort on the hill overlooking the river. The location is now known as Fort Hill, and has a park with several restored buildings and trails with educational placards.

[janewilliams20]

A rather obscure thought - the sound effects for the artillery, in almost any film, will be "wrong". They're usually made by modern guns, not those shown on camera. There's a film somewhere, and we're trying to remember where and what, where the sound of every shot fired came from one very small brass howitzer - I've fired that gun, and it makes a lovely sound, but I'm sure anyone who'd heard the real thing would be able to tell the difference.

[janewilliams20]

This reminds me about recoil. Most films show cannon firing blanks and not moving. Fire a twenty pound cannon ball five hundred yards and the ton of cannon will jump back about five yards. There are films which go to the trouble of simulating this but not many.

Uniform details are the other option. The BBC has a better record of getting this sort of thing right than Hollywood and even they make mistakes at times. You can even have the vampire correcting his friend - "That may have been the uniform but nobody ever wore it".

Donald

[1001cranes]

so, using some artistic license here, how would you describe sound effects for the artillery back in the day?

[janewilliams20]

Sorry, I have no idea. I wasn't there :(
Reenactors fire blanks, which must be different from a live round, but I have no idea how. A modern artillery piece will sound different from a historic one, and again, I have no idea how. Nor do I have any idea how to find out :(

[gehayi]

In Sharyn McCrumb's book Macpherson's Lament, she has a bunch of Civil War re-enactors sitting around the living room of one of looking for flaws in in the 1965 Civil War movie Shenandoah, starring Jimmy Stewart. These are the things that the re-enactors find wrong with the film