Historian Rates Nine American Civil War Battles In Movies
Garry Adelman, a historian, rates nine American Civil War battles in movies.
He comments on the Civil War-era artillery and rifles on display in Free State of Jones (2016), starring Matthew McConaughey; and Emancipation (2022), starring Will Smith.
He explains the use of dynamite and other explosives seen in Cold Mountain (2003), starring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, and Renée Zellweger; Sahara (2005), starring Matthew McConaughey; and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1967), starring Clint Eastwood.
He breaks down the military strategy seen in the battle scenes in Glory (1989), starring Matthew Broderick, Morgan Freeman, and Denzel Washington; Gettysburg (1993), starring Jeff Daniels; and Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln (2012), starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, and Tommy Lee Jones.
And finally, he separates fact from fiction regarding Civil War-era surgeries as seen in Dances with Wolves (1990), starring Kevin Costner.
Adelman is the chief historian at the American Battlefield Trust. He has also been a licensed battlefield guide at Gettysburg National Military Park for 27 years.
This is great! I've had some extra ACW interest over the last few months, as I have a bunch of 15mm plastic minis that I got when I was a Sumter County, Georgia boy surrounded by Civil War history (not always in a good way). I'm determined to use them in a skirmish game (I just want to base them on pennies and keep them handy in a baggie or something), BUT it's tough to find anything from the ACW that works with sub-company-level action very well. I'm not looking to play out a battle with thousands of men. I guess there were a FEW real battles that might work, but I might just be creating my own "history" in order to make the game something resembling fun...
(Thanks for posting and for reading my thinking-out-loud...😅)
When it comes to wargames, "skirmish" is my preferred approach. I love seeing the large scale battles at shows etc, but don't have the concentration (or massive armies) to actually play them. Skirmish in ACW means guerrilla actions to me - I recently invested in an Osprey book on ACW guerrilla tactics (not that I've read it yet).
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This is great! I've had some extra ACW interest over the last few months, as I have a bunch of 15mm plastic minis that I got when I was a Sumter County, Georgia boy surrounded by Civil War history (not always in a good way). I'm determined to use them in a skirmish game (I just want to base them on pennies and keep them handy in a baggie or something), BUT it's tough to find anything from the ACW that works with sub-company-level action very well. I'm not looking to play out a battle with thousands of men. I guess there were a FEW real battles that might work, but I might just be creating my own "history" in order to make the game something resembling fun...
ReplyDelete(Thanks for posting and for reading my thinking-out-loud...😅)
When it comes to wargames, "skirmish" is my preferred approach. I love seeing the large scale battles at shows etc, but don't have the concentration (or massive armies) to actually play them. Skirmish in ACW means guerrilla actions to me - I recently invested in an Osprey book on ACW guerrilla tactics (not that I've read it yet).
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