Civil War movies have been around almost as long as the history of cinema. The first of the references that I have of them is from 1903. This? is “Military Maneuvers - Manassas, Virginia,” put out by the U.S. Army. The interesting thing about this is that the Union won, and General Grant was there. We all know, of course, that that was false. So, even from the beginning, there were embellishments on history. This is the earliest photograph that I could find.

This is a 1908 movie, called “Sheridan’s Ride.” The guy on the horse is Sheridan, and he’s looking through binoculars and that’s what he’s probably seeing, above [There were two images on the slide – Ed.]. There were 500 extras in this movie. It was the largest battle filmed at that time.

This is “Lieutenant Gray of the Confederacy.” It was made in 1911. An interesting thing is that the person portraying General Grant was the cameraman. His name was Adam Wickoff. The plot here was: this woman, here, is trying to get General Grant to pardon her sweetheart. He was about be shot as a spy. She gets a reprieve from Grant and, finally, Lincoln signs it, giving him a full pardon.

I don’t know much about this one. This is called “The Lost Dispatch,” made in 1911. The story is that this gentleman, Joseph Caine, who is the actor, is going to be court martialed for losing orders. I don’t know anything else about the movie, but it’s an interesting still photo.

This was made in 1912. The actor right here, and you’ll see him later, also, is Henry Walton. In this movie, he was the black sheep of the family. He gives Southern orders to the North, and his older brother gets wounded, and eventually dies. Again, I don’t know what else happens in the movie.

A lot of these movies no longer exist, because 90% of all silent movies are gone, due to film deterioration.
This was another typical genre of the time: Women posing as soldiers. She’s probably on a mission of some kind. Again, I don’t know much else about this film.

In this 1913 movie, this Union soldier is being protected by a Southern family; they befriend him. The soldier is Charles Ray, who also pops up again, later on.

See, here he is already, in “Heroes of War,” 1913. Also, Joseph Caine is in this movie. A Union officer wins back his sweetheart because he saves her older brother. This is another typical genre.

This one is a tragedy. This is called “The Sharpshooter.” The Union soldier inadvertently kills this drummer boy, who happens to be this young lady’s younger brother. She forgives him, but that’s not the end of the story. He later dies in battle. Not all of these Civil War movies have happy endings.

This is “Gettysburg,” released about 1913. If you have seen this picture, it’s because it’s from Civil War Times, Illustrated. Now, I can point out some things in here. A lot of people wish they had this movie: it’s considered a classic, but, unfortunately, it’s considered as lost - this photo is all that remains. This Confederate, right here, looks like he’s wearing a bandoleer. I don’t ever remember seeing pictures of Confederates wearing bandoleers. The only way you can see this movie, or parts of this movie, is in another movie.

“Gettysburg” was the backdrop of another movie made in the same year. The director of that movie knew this one [“Gettysburg”] was being shot, and thought he could save some money. So, he took his camera and filmed it just on the outskirts [of the sets of “Gettysburg” as that movie was being filmed]. It is a pretty good movie, a comedy called “Colin Saves the Flag,” starring Nolan Mayholl.

Here are more scenes from that picture. At the end of this Battle of Gettysburg, you have Abraham Lincoln giving his Gettysburg Address. Once again, this photo is all that remains of the movie.

This is another tragedy, called “The Military Judas.” Again, Charles Wright. This time he’s another black sheep of the family. He sells military secrets so that he can pay off his gambling debt. Unfortunately his brother is wounded because of his action, and he feels so bad about it, that he eventually commits suicide.

This is from “The Coward,” another popular theme. This guy runs away from battle and eventually comes to his senses and redeems himself, by rallying the troops. This is one of the best movies of this type ever made, and that, again, is Charles Wright. Charles Wright was just a normal actor up to this point; this movie made him a star. You can still buy this movie [on videotape].

This is Blanche Sweet, “The Warrens of Virginia,” 1915. A very good movie, directed by Cecil B. DeMille. DeMille’s great-grandfather was in the Civil War. Blanche Sweet came over from D. W. Griffith – we’ll get to him later. In this picture, she is sewing socks for the Confederacy. The person who wrote the screenplay for this was Cecil B. DeMille’s brother. He based it on an incident that his great-grandfather said allegedly happened, and it has to do with another romance.
This is “The Birth of a Nation,” probably one of the most-despised films of all time. I’m not going to get into the politics of it, but President Wilson allegedly said “It is like writing history with lightning. My only regret is that it is all so true.” Well, Wilson was a Southerner, even though he was governor of New Jersey and the president of Princeton University. As you can see from this picture, the film glorified the Ku Klux Klan. Griffith, himself, was the son of a Confederate soldier, and his views were obviously shown. I don’t know if he intended to make [the movie as] a racist film or not, but that’s what it is.
This is a headline that came out when the movie was being made. A lot of people were very upset about this movie. The NAACP protested the movie. People wanted the filming stopped, but the shooting went on, and it made millions for that time. The ticket price for this movie was $2.00 - that was back in 1915. There were no bargain matinees.

Griffith had to literally borrow from his stars to make this movie, because he ran out of funds. It cost approximately $110,000, which was probably the most-expensive movie at the time. His previous works were, like, $5,000. It was money well spent, at least for the Civil War part.

This gentleman right here is D.W. Griffith. These are Civil War veterans who acted as advisors on the movie. I believe this [slide shows] part of Sherman’s March.

Here is another scene from “The Birth of a Nation.” D.W. Griffith was a smart person. These houses were made proportionally smaller, to give the illusion of a long, long parade. I don’t know how he did it: I mean, do you get smaller and smaller people towards the back? I don’t know.

This is the battle. It’s very, very realistic. You can see smoke, people carrying the American flag, trenches. Donald Crisp, who played General Grant in this movie, said that he [Crisp] directed this. A lot of people pooh-poohed this, because D.W. Griffith was really the mastermind behind this movie.

This is a close up of the battle. This is a Confederate flag. That’s Henry B. Walthall. An interesting thing about this movie, and this happens in a lot of movies. If you notice, all the soldiers are using breechloaders [i.e., breechloading muskets and rifles – Ed.]. Now, if you look closely at some of these, you can tell that they are breechloaders. This another inaccuracy that shows up.

This is Ford’s Theater, or a reproduction of Ford’s Theater. This was built on a soundstage, outside. D.W. Griffith had his actors run through “Our American Cousin” [the play being presented when Lincoln was assassinated – Ed.] up to the point at which Lincoln was shot. As you can tell, D.W. Griffith liked accuracy. I think that is pretty amazing. This is General Lee, as played by British actor Howard Gaye. Back then, the actors did their own makeup, and I think that he did a really incredible job in looking like Robert E. Lee. This is Mae Marsh. This was probably the pinnacle of her career. She made one more movie, “Intolerance,” that was really outstanding, but alcohol prematurely aged her, and her career took a big dive.
One person that wasn’t really affected [by some of the personal tragedies – drugs addiction, alcoholism – that touched on some of the players in “The Birth of a Nation”] was Lillian Gish. She played Elsie Stoneman. She came to be a big star on screen, television and in the theater.

Here’s Walter Cahill. This was probably his finest moment in cinema. After this, he signed on to another company and made mediocre pictures.

This guy is Joe Stoleman. He became a director.

This actor’s name is Elmo Clifton. He also became a director.

Josephine Cromwell was in “Intolerance,” as well. A lot people say she was miscast in that movie, but this [part in “The Birth of a Nation”] was probably one of her finest roles.

This is another movie, which came out one year later, in 1916. This is a scene from “The Crisis.” This movie did not do very well

Another scene from “The Crisis,” with Union troops gathering for battle.

This is “Hayford Strawfoot,” from 1919. The premise of this movie is kind of interesting. He is a World War I doughboy, and every time he gets into trouble, he thinks, “What would General Grant have done in this situation?” He was a big admirer of General Grant, and all of the Civil War scenes were flashbacks.

This is another comedy, from 1922, “Grandma’s Boy,” featuring Harold Lloyd, another big comedian. This was his only Civil War film. But again, it features flashbacks of his great grandfather. The premise is that he was weakling, and he was being bullied all the time. So his grandmother gave him a cane that his great-grandfather had had. After that, he gained confidence, and he beat up on the bully. You can see that his great-grandfather had been a Confederate, and you can see the remnants of the carnage that he caused against the Union.

Next up is one of my favorite films. This is “Hands Up,” and this is Raymond Griffith, and he’s got two loves. If you’re wondering what Indians have to do with a Civil War movie, well, it’s one of the few still shots that I could find of the movie. He’s a Confederate spy sent out West to capture gold - another prevailing theme among Civil War movies. Right here, he’s going to teach these Indians how to dance the Charleston. But the Charleston hadn’t been invented yet! Remember, though, that the Charleston was popular in 1926, when the movie was made. This movie had an interesting ending. The war ends, and he is all dejected, wondering what’s he going to do. He’s in love with two girls, and he doesn’t know how to resolve his dilemma. Guess who shows up? Brigham Young, with his wives. So he gets the idea to jump onto Brigham Young’s thing with his two girlfriends, and he becomes a Mormon. The last thing you see on the screen is “Utah or bust.” Now, that’s kind of a shocking ending, and in some versions, you don’t see that ending, because it was “not proper.”
Same movie. This is Abraham Lincoln and he is depressed because he doesn’t know what he’s going to do. This is at the beginning of the movie. He’s the one trying to get the gold, but Raymond Griffith spoiled his plans. Now, Raymond Griffith never did make it into the talkies, because he couldn’t speak above a whisper. So, once the talkies came around, his movie career as an actor ended. However, he did make one more movie, “All Quiet on the Western Front.” He was the French gentleman in the trenches in that movie. This was the version that came out in 1930. That was probably the biggest role he had. Another thing about Raymond Griffith, a lot of his movies are lost. This is one of few examples of his work that still remains.

You know this picture. This is from “The General.” That’s Buster Keaton. This came out in 1926. During the filming of this, they had to postpone shooting because of a forest fire in Oregon, where they were on location, because there was so much smoke that they couldn’t film. And so the film went over budget. This is the famous scene where he’s on the train chopping wood. The train is going this way; troops are coming that way. These are Union troops. A little further on, he comes across Confederate troops.

This is a scene near the end of the film. People standing nearby during filming thought that someone was killed, but it was actually a dummy. That’s how realistic this scene was. They did it in one take. It’s pretty amazing. This train rusted in the river for years as a wreck, and it was not until War World II came, that it was salvaged and probably sold for scrap. This is probably one of the last independent films Buster Keaton made. He signed on with another studio, and his career plummeted. He didn’t really recover until the 1960s, near the end of his life.

This is “A Southern Yankee,” with Red Skelton [from 1948 – Ed.]. Buster Keaton was down on his luck and was hired on as a gagwriter for this film [in fact, a remake of Keaton’s “The General” – Ed.]. One of the gags from this film is that Skelton’s walking between the two lines. On the side facing the Confederates, he’s wearing half a Confederate coat, and on the side facing the Union troops he’s wearing half of a Union coat. He’s also got a flag that’s Confederate on one side, Union on the other. Both sides are cheering: “He’s a hero!” However, the wind shifts and the flag reverses, and everyone begins saying

“He’s a traitor!” It’s one of the classic moments of that film.

This is one of the many, many Abraham Lincoln films made. This is “Abraham Lincoln,” though not the 1930 version. This was made six years earlier. That’s George A. Billings, as Abraham Lincoln. Walter Rogers is Grant. This movie was considered a flop; it did not do well in theaters. However, Photoplay Magazine did a Reader Poll, and the readers voted it one of the best pictures of 1924. Who can figure? If everyone liked it so much, why did it do so poorly at the box office? Perhaps people were getting tired of Civil War films.

This is “Abraham Lincoln,” the 1930 version, D.W. Griffith’s first talkie. He only made two. Walter Huston played Abraham Lincoln, and his son was [played by] John Huston, who went on the make “The Red Badge of Courage,” which we’ll get to in a little bit. This movie was a $400,000 budget. D.W. Griffith got it in on time, and for the right amount of money. An interesting thing about this movie was that Carl Sandburg wanted to be hired to do the screenplay, but he was asking too much money. It didn’t happen. The next person they wanted was Stephen Vincent Benet, who wrote “John Brown’s Body.” He actually wrote a screenplay of [“Abraham Lincoln”]. However, very little of his script was used. The executive producers didn’t think it would go well. I think it probably would have been a better movie.
Same movie; this is Cedar Creek, General Sheridan’s Ride. That’s Sheridan, whom everyone is cheering. It’s the only battle sequence in this film.

This is “Jesse James,” 1927. A very fictionalized version of his exploits during the Civil War. I believe that’s Fred Thompson as Jesse James.

This is “Dark Command,” from 1940, with John Wayne. John Wayne makes a lot of these types of movies. This is Walter Pidgeon as William “Cantrill.” I don’t know why they call him “Cantrill;” he’s supposed to be William Quantrill. I don’t know why they changed the name. Wayne is the sheriff who is supposed to stop Cantrill during the burning of Lawrence, Kansas. He doesn’t really succeed, but Cantrill gets killed. Remember that there’s a lot of fiction in Hollywood. In actual fact, Quantrill didn’t get killed until years later.

Here’s “Belle Starr,” from 1941, with Randolph Scott and Gene Tierney. This is another fictionalized account of an outlaw, Belle Starr. In reality, she did not look this good. And, she was not a Confederate.

Here’s another Quantrill movie, with Leo Gordon as Quantrill, and Steven Cochran as the person trying to stop him. It’s another fictionalized account of the villain.

Do you recognize this gentleman? That’s Gary Cooper. This is 1930. This is “Only the Brave.” He’s a spy, sent out to get plans, or gold, or whatever. He gets captured, but the war ends. This is another scene from the same movie. This is Gary Cooper again. He looks a lot different, but, again, we’ll see him later.

See, what did I tell you? This is “Operator 13,” from 1934, another spy movie, another big genre at the time. This Marion Davies, in probably her only Civil War film. She’s a spy.

You know this one: that’s Shirley Temple, in “The Littlest Rebel.” This [1935 version] was a remake; an earlier version was made in 1910. This movie was a lot more successful. I believe that’s Jack Holt and John Boles, and, of course, Shirley Temple steals the scene, the movie, and breaks everybody’s hearts. It’s a cute movie.

Hal Roach wanted to capture the success of “The Littlest Rebel,” and he wanted his studio to make the same kind of movie. This is “General Spanky,” made one year later, in 1936. A lot of people would consider this a racist movie. You have Buckwheat, here, looking for a new master. The plotline of the story is that he does something for a general and they actually become friends near the end of the movie. I have never seen the film, but it is out on the market. It’s $29.99, a little bit high-priced for a movie.

“The Prisoner of Shark Island.” It was made in 1936, with Warner Baxter, as Doctor Mudd, and Gloria Stuart. It was probably one of the best movies on Doctor Mudd. There were two other ones that I can think of, one was with Dennis Weaver [“The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd,” (1980) – Ed.]. This is supposed to be a very good movie. Again, he is in prison.
That’s Jimmy Stewart, in “Of Human Hearts,” made in 1938. The story here is that he is a doctor, but he ignores his family and he goes off to the Civil War. His mother writes to President Lincoln, and Lincoln shames him and orders him to go home. A lot of corn, but Jimmy Stewart does it well.

This is “Gone With The Wind.” Now, everybody should have seen “Gone With The Wind.” However, it’s not my favorite Civil War movie. There were a lot of things written about this. I can do a whole lecture on this movie. I could do a whole lecture on “The Birth of a Nation,” too, but . . . Here are some scenes from “Gone With The Wind,” but I won’t go into it much, because I think everybody knows what it is about. This slide shows Vivien Leigh reading a script, right before the shooting of the ball scene. An interesting thing about this movie is that, if you’ve ever watched it closely, Melanie [Olivia de Havilland’s character] is pregnant for 21 months! Margaret Mitchell [author of the novel, Gone With The Wind – Ed.], when asked about this, said “We Southerners do things a lot more slowly than Northerners.”

The burning of Atlanta [in “Gone With The Wind.”]. This was actually shot first, because he [David O. Selznick, producer of the film – Ed.] wanted to make room to build the other sets. If you look carefully, this is actually the “King Kong” set that’s being burned. It is on the same lot that “King Kong” was filmed on.

Yes, here’s Clark Gable again. This is “Band of Angels,” from 1957, three years before his death. He played the same type of character as in “Gone With The Wind.” Yvonne DeCarlo goes on, later, to become Herman Munster’s wife.
This is “Virginia City,” 1940. See how young Errol Flynn looks? That’s before the ravages of his drinking catch up with him. This gentleman right here is Humphrey Bogart. He played a Mexican Bandit, and he’s after the gold that this Confederate, Randolph Scott, is going to have. Bogart double-crosses him, and Bogart gets killed at the end of the movie.
Ten years later, here’s Errol Flynn in “Rocky Mountain.” See how he has aged?

Yes, here’s another one of the many Civil War movies. That’s future President, Ronald Reagan, in “The Last Outpost,” in 1951. He rode his own horse.

This is “The Red Badge of Courage.” A great movie, directed by John Huston. I can tell you stories about this movie. Lillian Ross, a journalist, was writing about this movie when it was being made. It’s probably out of print, but if you want to know how this movie was made, hers is the book to read. It’s called The Picture. It gives you the entire dirt on this movie.
[“The Red Badge of Courage”] was only 69 minutes long when it was finished, with all of the editing. It was originally a lot longer, but the producer at the time shortened it, because the audience, during previews, didn’t like it. So, they edited it down. They probably edited a lot of fine scenes out of this movie. There was one scene in the movie, in the long battle, near the end, where if you watch carefully, Audie Murphy loses his bandanna, and then he gets it back. Well, that’s from the editing. Also, the voice-overs; they were also added after the editing.

Now one problem is that John Huston did not really edit this movie. He ran over to Africa to make his next big film, which was “The African Queen.” The movie before this one, and the movie after, were big box-office hits. [“The Red Badge of Courage,”] however, never did do very well at the box office. It became the second billing in double features.
Also, if you look closely at this movie, once again you do have the soldiers using breech-loaded rifles, which they didn’t have back then, at least not breech-loading muskets. Another inaccuracy is the five buttons [on the uniform blouses]; they didn’t come into use until the 1870s. The standard regulation jacket [during the Civil War] had four buttons. Despite these things, the movie was very well photographed; John Huston used photographs taken by Mathew Brady as inspiration.
This is Van Heflin, in “The Raid,” made in 1954. St. Alban’s, Vermont. The recreation of that famous bank robbery. However, Hollywood likes to fictionalize things. In the movie, they set the town on the fire. That never happened.

Another fine movie, fictionalized: “Rio Grande,” from 1950.

Since it’s twenty years since Elvis died, I wanted to throw this in. Here’s Elvis, in his first movie role. This is “Love Me Tender.” Originally, the title was “The Reno Brothers.” Actually, Elvis did a very good job in this movie. However, he died at the end, and a lot of people didn’t like seeing “The King” die. I thought he did a really good job.

Elvis wasn’t the only singer who made a movie. Roy Orbison did one, as well, “The Fastest Guitar Alive.” I own this
movie, and I think it’s really good. It’s corn, but it’s amusing. The gimmick is that he has a guitar that, if he pulls a lever, becomes a shotgun. The plot is that these guys were after Confederate gold and some other things, and when the war ends, they have to figure how to put it back. They actually do, at the end. Roy does a lot of fine singing in the movie, even though some of the songs are not from the Civil War.

That’s Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift, from “Raintree County.” This movie had another interesting story connected with it. Montgomery Clift was in a horrible accident while making this movie, and they had to stop production. In fact, if you watch closely, you can tell which scenes were shot before the accident, and which were shot after. Also, the studio was trying to capture the “Gone With The Wind” feeling, but it never happened. “Raintree County” was made in 1957.
As you can tell, a lot of these movies went from the romance type to Westerns; that’s the way the genre went. These are scenes from “The Great Locomotive Chase.” This was the third movie out. “The General” was not the first movie about this subject. There was a short film made in the early 1900s, called “Railroad Raiders of ’62.” This is “The Great Locomotive Chase,” and it’s a lot more accurate than “The General.” This movie was made by Disney, by the way.

This is from “Friendly Persuasion.” It’s one of two movies about families caught in a struggle during the Civil War. They’re Quakers, and you know how Quakers are, they’re against violence. That’s Anthony Perkins. He later becomes a nut in “Psycho.” This is one of his first films. He was, I think, nominated for an Oscar for this movie. These are Morgan’s Raiders, and they are trying to get supplies, but she [Dorothy McGuire – Ed.] fights them off. It’s kind amusing, the way she does it, because a Quaker is supposed to be peaceful. There’s one scene in the movie where these guys are capturing a duck that is the family pet, and she just flips out. It’s a great picture for a crowd.

Here is John Wayne. This was probably one of his best Civil War movies, “The Horse Soldiers,” [filmed in 1959]. John Ford directs this, and the budget for the movie was 3-1/2 million dollars. That’s the end of the big fight scene, when the Confederates come in. This is supposed to be a recreation of Grierson’s Raid [To divert attention from Grant’s crossing of the Mississippi River, south of Vicksburg, in 1863, Union Col. Benjamin H. Grierson led a successful raid that covered 600 miles in 16 days. – Ed.]. Grierson had a beard, John Wayne didn’t. John Ford also wanted to complete the film by showing the troops riding into Louisiana. However, he lost heart. One of his best friends wanted to do a stunt, and, unfortunately, he died during the stunt. So, John Ford just ended the movie with John Wayne riding across a bridge near the end of the film. It’s one of the unfortunate things that happens in the course of moviemaking.

This is “Mysterious Island” [A British picture released in 1951 – Ed.]. These are Union troops who escaped from Libby Prison. They end up on this island, and eventually meet Captain Nemo. One of the hazards they had to fight was a giant crab. I wonder what they thought: Fight the giant crab, or more Confederates?

This is “How the West Was Won.” That’s George Peppard. Three directors made this; John Ford did the Civil War scene. It was originally screened in Cinerama; NBC showed it a year or two ago on television in its original format.

He [Peppard] is just about to prevent this Confederate from shooting General Sherman and General Grant. John Wayne played General Sherman and Harry Morgan played Grant. That’s right, the same actor who played Col. Potter in the TV series, “M*A*S*H.”

And here’s the other “family” picture. This is “Shenandoah,” with Jimmy Stewart. Katharine Ross, who’s featured in the picture also, is the wife of Sam Elliot, the actor who played Gen. John Buford in the movie “Gettysburg.” This is probably one of her first roles. This is one of the battle scenes in the movie. Jimmy Stewart plays the family patriarch of a pretty large family. He tries to keep his sons out of the Civil War. His son wants to join the Confederacy, but he [Stewart] says, “Nah! That’s not for us.” But he does get involved, and some people of his family die, but his favorite son does survive the movie. This movie was also made into a play.

Here’s Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach. This is “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.” A lot of people say that this is one of the best spaghetti Westerns ever made. It’s also a Civil War movie. There are a couple of funny scenes in this movie. One is where Eli Wallach sees grayclad troops coming, and begins shouting, “Hooray for the Confederacy! Hooray for General Lee!” But as the soldiers come closer and the blue [of their uniforms, which are covered with gray traildust] begins to show up, Clint Eastwood comments, “Well, God is not with us, because God doesn’t like idiots!” I am paraphrasing, but that’s the general idea. This movie was made in 1967. There is another funny scene in this movie, near the end, the bridge scene. Originally, the mark for the two actors [the spot where they were to stand – Ed.] was a lot closer to the explosion, but Eastwood said that they didn’t want to do the scene there, because it was too dangerous. So, they had a big argument with the director, Sergio Leone. Well, nobody told the crew about not blowing up the bridge. Well, they actually blew up the bridge, and so they had to build the bridge over again, once filming was complete. It’s a very fine battle scene; unfortunately, I don’t have any shots of it. It reminds me of Burnside’s Bridge [at Antietam].

Here’s Clint Eastwood, again, in “The Beguiled.” This movie was kind of strange. It was made in 1971. Eastwood is a Union sergeant, actually a sniper, and he comes to a girls’ school down in the South. He is a really nasty guy in this movie, and, eventually, he loses a leg, and the girls got so disgusted with him – at least the headmistress does - that they eventually poison him with mushrooms.

This is “Journey to Shiloh,” made in 1966. It had James Caan, Jan Michael Vincent and, I believe, Harrison Ford, before “Star Wars.” It was a mediocre movie. These young bucks were all gung-ho to go fight the Union. However, each one gets killed during the fighting; only one survives. He’s let go by the general who was in charge, but even then he doesn’t escape - he loses his arm.

That’s Rock Hudson and John Wayne, in “The Undefeated.” This movie was made in 1969. They’re looking at their men, who are fighting each other. These Confederates are going off to Mexico, to start a new life, and John Wayne is going with them, to sell cattle with his men. Before that they were on two opposite sides of the same battle. I never saw this movie.
This is going into television land. This is from “The Blue and The Gray.” It was an okay movie, but once again, the jackets were wrong. They had too many buttons down the front. I think it was made in 1982. I have a copy over there [at a side table]. Gregory Peck played Abraham Lincoln.

This is “North and South,” and that’s Patrick Swayze. He had to be aged twenty years in order to show him aging from the Mexican War to the Civil War.

Yep, that’s “Glory.” I can’t say much about that film, but there’s one scene where Morgan Freeman says, “Yep, boys, we’re back, and we’re fighting the Confederates,” or something to that effect. In the scene, you see the slave boys waving, and, if you look closely, you clearly see that one of them is wearing a wristwatch. Somebody wasn’t paying attention.

Martin Sheen and Tom Berenger in “Gettysburg.” Sheen also starred in a movie, around the same time, called “The Ghost Brigade,” where he used exactly the same makeup. He also starred in another movie, made around 1970, called “No Drums, No Bugles.” It’s definitely a weird movie; you only see him. He’s a pacifist in the movie, and he spends his time during the Civil War hiding out in a cave, and you only see the feet of soldiers that he’s observing. It is a very bizarre movie.

“Andersonville,” made in 1996. At the top of this slide is a photo of the actual camp; at the bottom, is the recreation for the movie. I haven’t seen this one, but I have it on tape. I have heard that it is very good. McKinlay Cantor wrote a book, Andersonville. Now that book was supposed to be made into a movie. If you buy an old paperback copy, you see that the cover says, “Soon to be made into a major release!” Well, it never happened.

This is Chris Cooper, in “Pharaoh’s Army.” It is another movie that I have on tape that I haven’t gotten a chance to see. It’s about a Union captain who is with a small brigade. One of his men is wounded, and he comes to the small farmhouse of a woman whose Confederate husband is out fighting the war. The captain chasing demons; he wants to be home from the war. The woman is also chasing demons, because previous to these people showing up, her daughter’s grave had been dug up. She is very spiteful. I would be spiteful, too, if my daughter’s grave was dug up by Union soldiers. It’s supposed to be a very interesting movie. It was made in 1996.

Now, as I far as I know there are no major Civil War movies coming up in 1997. The closest thing was “The Rough Riders,” [a made-for-television movie – Ed.] which had Gary Busey playing Joseph Wheeler. He did a very good job, but I think Gary Busey was miscast, because Joseph Wheeler was not that big - or that young looking. And, I think, Joseph Wheeler, at the time, had a weird-looking beard.

Well, that’s it. I hope you enjoyed my presentation.

Transcribed by Sue Makwinski
Edited by: Phil Kohn

The speaker: Bruce Bardarik is a member of the Robert E. Lee Civil War Round Table of Central New Jersey. He serves as chairman of the Round Table’s Preservation Committee, and he has helped coordinate the group’s Annual Battlefield Preservation Dinner for the past several years.