History Buffs: Gettysburg

this episode's sponsored by grey courses plus [Music] hello and welcome history buffs my name is nick hodges and today i'll be diving into a true american classic gettysburg in vivid detail this four-hour epic covers the bloodiest battle that has ever been fought on american soil the battle of gettysburg set in july of 1863 this is the story of confederate general robert e lee's bold plan to invade the north and provoke the army of the potomac into open battle if successful it could potentially turn the tide of america's civil war in favor of the confederacy and that's the basic premise of the movie now as for its execution let's just say that this is america's answer to waterloo everyone involved in production gave it their all from shooting on the real locations to recruiting thousands of civil war reenactors to help bring this battle to life this is another example of a historic film done right this is gettysburg [Music] by 1863 the american civil war was at a stalemate and two years of endless fighting had claimed 200 000 lives at the turn of summer the fate of the confederacy had reached a critical point in the western theater union armies led by ulysses s grant were besieging the city of vicksburg a vital confederate stronghold and supply route its capture would strategically place all of the mississippi river into federal hands effectively cutting the confederacy in half to the east confederate general robert e lee devises a plan that he hopes will end the war before vicksburg's fate is sealed that june lee crossed the potomac with 75 000 men and pushed on until pennsylvania to raid multiple union supply depots this move would provoke the army of the potomac into open battle and if lee was able to crush this northern army of 95 000 men then nothing would stand between him and a defenseless washington where lee hopes the peace movement and public outcry would force lincoln into signing an armistice and recognize southern independence morale amongst the confederate troops was high as lee was often victorious in the field even when outnumbered and against overwhelming odds but most of these battles have been fought in the south the success often hinging on knowledge of the local terrain and intelligence obtained by spies and civilians but now lee's army was marching into enemy territory with little of these advantages general stewart and three brigades of his cavalry that were meant to act as the eyes and ears of the army disappeared for nearly two weeks without contact leaving lee effectively blind and forced to predict enemy movement from what little intelligence he had there would be some word from janice too general stuart would not leave us blind oh one other thing hooker's been replaced george meade is the new commander harrison read it in yankee papers george mead pennsylvania man mead would be cautious i think take him some time to get organized perhaps we should move more swiftly the man they're talking about was george mead the new acting commander of the union army and lee's quick assessment of him had some merit five other commanders previously held the job before lincoln fired them making meat and experience a potential advantage on july 1st lee received word of a small skirmish in gettysburg between a brigade of confederate troops and dismounted union cavalry led by brigadier general john buford recognizing the strategic importance of the hills to the south buford organized a delaying action until federal reinforcements could arrive thinking that the union presence at gettysburg was bigger than it was lee ordered the bulk of his army to head there to the northwest of gettysburg or macpherson's ridge beaufort's cavalry bravely held their ground as best they could but were slowly being pushed back a small respite was given as union general john reynolds arrived with reinforcements what initially started off as an accidental clash between smaller units quickly escalated into a full-scale battle with 18 000 federal soldiers holding off 30 000 rebels with more on the way eventually the union line collapsed against the onslaught and pulled back through the town of gettysburg an intense firefighter erupted in the streets but federal troops trying desperately to not get left behind of the chaos so far the first day of battle seemed to favor the confederacy with the union army abandoning gettysburg and fleeing for the hills all that was needed for victory was for lee to go all in but instead he gave what is arguably the most controversial order in the entire battle find general eu telling the federal troops are withdrawn in confusion it is only necessary to push those people in order to gain possession of those heights tell him to take that hill if practicable the one beyond the town do you understand what i mean yes sir farewell unfortunately for the confederates general yule didn't understand what lee meant possession of the high ground would prove decisive to whichever side held it but he was told to only take it if practical and since he was new to command himself yule decided that it wasn't very practical and held his men back to rest instead giving the union troops much needed time to dig in robert e lee's unclear order was among the first of many mistakes he would make general longstreet's leased second in command could see their tactical disadvantage and sensibly pressed him to redeploy their army the idea being that if they could flank south of the enemy and threaten washington then the union army would be forced to abandon the high ground however lee was not susceptible to the suggestion if we move south to washington they have to pursue us and then we can fight on ground of our choosing but the enemy is here we did not want the fight but the fight is here how can i ask this army to retreat in the face of what they have done this day not retreat sir redeploy our guns will move them off that hill or you will push him off but if meat is there to mom i cannot move this army away no sir i will attack him this doubling down would cost the rebels dearly by nightfall general mead had arrived along with the full remainder of his army his men by now had strengthened their positions and all that was needed was simply to wait for their enemy to come for them [Music] july 2 1863 it is the second day of battle and 75 000 confederates are faced with attacking 95 000 union troops all entrenched on corpse hill cemetery hill and cemetery ridge their defensive lines on the high slopes resemble something of a fish hook to drive them off it robert e lee ordered an all-out assault its main body would be carried out by general longstreet who would take his 15 000 rebels and strike at the union left and with a little luck overrun this impenetrable line and sweep over the entire breath of the fishhook the possibility of such a success nearly came to be when union brigadier general sickles disobeyed mead's orders to stay put and took his third core beyond the safety of the line to the peach orchard there he hoped to make better use of his artillery but in doing so had dangerously exposed gaps in the fish hook for hours sickles in his third court defended the peach orchard but they couldn't hope to hold it for long faced with the full brunt of the rebels attack mead was forced to send troops off the high ground to plug in the gaps that sickles had left behind this order didn't come a moment too soon the rebel line easily overwhelmed sickle's third core sweeping over the peach orchard the wheat field or a fast approaching cemetery ridge wave upon wave of rebel troops smashed into the union left both sides suffered horrific casualties one wrong move on the union's part could have ended the battle right there and then the fighting was especially fierce on little round top the farthest edge of the union left flank if the confederates could capture it then their artillery would dominate the union lines defending it was the 20th main regiment led by colonel joshua lawrence chamberlain at the top of the hill he organized the bulk of his 385 men into a single file line the rest he held back his reserves to plug in the gaps for the fight to come as the rebels charged up the hill they were met with relentless volley fire the climb up the woodland slope was treacherous as they struggled to maintain balance amidst the hail of musket fire the first rebel charge was unable to keep up the momentum and gradually pull back this brief respite wasn't enjoyed by the yankees for long as the rebels reorganized themselves for another charge but yet again it made the same results as the first and ended with another regrouping fearing being flanked for the upcoming third charge chamberlain pulled what remained of his reserves to form an angle to the main line this quick thinking was spot on as the third charge was indeed a flanking maneuver the fight by now had become desperate as both sides were so close that they fired on one another at almost point-blank range for 90 minutes chamberlain's men had stubbornly held the line but the likelihood of them surviving a fourth charge didn't look good the casualties they suffered had been heavy and virtually all of their ammunition was gone it was at this crucial moment that chamberlain gave an order that would become one of the most iconic in the american civil war we can't run away if we stay here we can't shoot so let's fix bayonets we'll have the advantage of moving down the hill as the final confederate charge made its way up the hill the 20th main regiment lined up and fixed bayonets wielding his sword at the enemy chamberlain gave the order to charge leading the attack personally with his men this move caught the rebels completely by surprise causing them to rout down the hill in a flight of panic never to return fighting would continue throughout the day in other parts of the battlefield but the union left was successfully held i would like to say thanks to our sponsor for this video great courses plus if you're interested in learning more about the american civil war then you should check out their series with professor gary w gallagher in 48 lectures he covers the entire conflict as well as his most significant battles like gettysburg this subscription on-demand video learning service provides exclusive lectures and courses from top professors of the ivy league and other great universities globally it also boasts experts from places like the national geographic the smithsonian and the culinary institute of america with unlimited access to over 9000 lectures you'll be able to learn on any device of your own choosing to start your free trial just enter thegreycoursesplus.com forward slash history buffs or click on the link in the description box below [Music] july the 3rd 1863 by the morning of the third day both the union and the confederates had suffered horrific losses with up to 35 000 combined casualties so far although robert e lee's attempt to take the high ground had failed miserably he still refused to admit defeat fervently believing that on the second day the union were close to breaking and one last big push would bring victory with an all-out assault on the union center in the center they'd be great sir they will break in the center those people will be gaining men from all directions guns by the thousands and richmond has nothing left to send us so if we stay we fight if we retreat now we will have fought here for two days and believe knowing we could not drive him off and i have never yet left the enemy in command of the field no sir retreat is no longer an option lee's decision to go for the center and cemetery ridge was based on the fact that the previous day's fighting had been focused on the union left and right wings the reserves that were sent to reinforce those wings came from the center which was now the weakest point of the line in theory anyway in reality any attack on the union center would be suicidal what long streets knew and protested to lee was that such an attack would be over open ground for three quarters of a mile their men would be without cover and exposed a federal cannon fire those that survived would then be up against volleys of musket fire by federal soldiers behind stone walls and earthworks the losses of such an attack would be staggering longstreet tried repeatedly to persuade lee against the attack but to no avail all he could do is see it through leading the charge would be major general george pickett and his division of 12 000 men to provide them with some cover longstreet implemented 160 cannons to fire on cemetery ridge in hopes to pin down the union artillery but privately longstreet knew that any such hope was forlorn 100 federal cannons simply returned fire the combined strength used by both armies made this the largest ever artillery barrage in north american history when the moments finally came for pika to lead the charge longstreet couldn't even bring himself to give the order general long street should i commence the attack emerging from the concealment of the trees twelve thousand rebels began the long march to cemetery ridge for a brief moment the confederates believed the artillery barrage had worked as the union cannons had stopped firing and pickets division were able to advance unmolested but it was a ploy union commanders had briefly silenced their guns to lure their enemy into the killing fields when the confederate division walked into optimum range the union artillery hit them with everything they had solid cast iron balls bounced across the landscape slamming into rebel lines followed by shrapnel shells that exploded overhead spitting thousands of metal fragments into enemy ranks when pickett's division were even closer range they were hit by devastating canister shots small cast iron balls densely packed together and when fired resembled something of a shotgun taking out rows of men at a time the punishment inflicted on piket's division was horrifying but admirably the survivors continued their desperate march on cemetery ridge unabated as they neared federal lines union soldiers were now able to use their muskets volley after volley hit the rebels decimating their numbers what was left of pickett's men were just able to break through and reach the stone walls both sides engaged in desperate hand-to-hand fighting but eventually the greater numbers overwhelmed the confederates when the fighting was finally over a mortified george pickett had lost over two-thirds of his division general pickett sir you must look to your division generally i have no division the devastating results of pickett's charge brought robert e lee back to reality no chance of victory could possibly be snatched from this defeat on july 5th 1863 lee ordered his exhausted army to retreat south to virginia the chance to march in washington was forever gone gettysburg is another rare example of why historical accuracy in films can be possible should be possible or uniquely to this case needed to be possible the movie as we know it wouldn't exist and have had to deal with the creative liberties you often find in hollywood movies and what do i mean by this well one cool thing the filmmakers wanted to do was shoot the movie where the battle was actually fought in gettysburg pennsylvania which has since become a national military park a place that not only preserves the land in which this battle was fought but its history and legacy so in order to shoot there they needed to prove to the national park service that they would be respectful to the time period since no war film had ever been shot in a national park before fortunately gettysburg was a passion project of director ronald maxwell who spent 15 years trying to bring it to life before was picked up by media mogul ted turner who was also a hardcore civil war buff in fact he makes a brief cameo in the movie as a confederate officer who gets shot during pickett's charge so right from the offset the entire production crew understood and accepted the responsibility in adapting this piece of history but aside from the national park service there was one other group they needed to convince in order to make this picture into something very special the re-enactors living historians whose passion about the american civil war is second to none over 5 000 volunteers showed up to participate from every corner of the usa my great-grandfather fought in the battle of gettysburg and i just think it's an honor for me to get the opportunity to come here and make the best picture that we can make maybe i can honor him and the boys who fought and died here i think we're really fortunate to have those people involved in fact they couldn't be making this picture without them you know i mean there's no question about that because it's these guys come with their wardrobe they come with their weaponry and they they come with all the accoutrements but they also come with the stuff in their head and the stuff in their heart he's not exaggerating by the way about how passionate these guys were most of them were not paid for their time and efforts the only reimbursements they might have received would have been in travel expenses or for food and yet they helped shape production costs by bringing years of experience and training as well as their own equipment there were even reenactors who brought their own cannons that's how much they care about the american civil war so imagine what would happen if the filmmakers didn't if they took too many extreme creative liberties these reenactors would simply walk off the sets and the entire production would be halted that's why gettysburg needed to be as historically accurate as possible and thankfully they succeeded they did so well in fact that there's hardly any inaccuracies worth mentioning in this review so instead i'm going to be covering how gettysburg handled representing both sides of the war the film's greatest strengths is its heavy focus on the tactics and strategies of the battle which is supported by both northerners and southerners but gettysburg also tries its best to have a non-biased approach which didn't sit well with some audience members for example the late film critic gene siskel gave gettysburg a thumbs down in his review calling it bloated southern propaganda he clearly didn't approve seeing confederate characters talk about the cause and yet avoid the subject of slavery why fighting this war why you fighting it i'm gonna free the slaves of course because of the union i don't know about some other folk but i ain't fighting for no [ __ ] one way or the other i'm fighting for my rats obviously that's what we're fighting for for you what for our rats now i think we can all agree that every confederate soldier believed their reasons for fighting was righteous so it makes sense for the film to show them rationalizing these beliefs in the way that they do and how do they go about this by using a brit of course he's the one with the cup of tea in case you didn't notice the character in question was the real life historical figure sir arthur lyon fremantle in the movie he's a british officer sent on behalf of the crown to observe the confederate army girlfriend sir allow me to introduce major general george pickett general pickett lieutenant colonel arthur fremantle of her majesty's venerable and elite cold stream guards britain's military attache to the confederacy and you might say the eyes and ears of queen victoria oh hardly sir million observer and your humble guest whilst those credentials were real his reasons for being there was not in reality fremantle was not britain's official military attache but more of a tourist after hearing about the american civil war he wanted to see it for himself but specifically the southern perspective taking a leave of absence fremantle traveled to the confederate states of america slipping past the union blockade he landed in mexico and crossed the border into texas from there he traveled to louisiana mississippi tennessee virginia and gettysburg pennsylvania now you may be wondering how was he able to get about so easily and given all this access well a lot of confederate officials just assumed he was a british observer and fremantle just didn't bother correcting them the company he kept also gave this appearance as he traveled with other european officers who were official observers so anyway why am i mentioning this guy because aside from being a real historical figure fremantle's perspective as an outsider allows us to learn about the confederates through his eyes i guess we southerners in new england have at least one thing in common i'd rather lose the war than admit to the mistake well let me make this very plain to you sir we do not consent and we will never consent and what you've got to do is you've got to go back over there to your parliament and you've got to make a good plan to them you've got to tell them that what we're fighting for here's a is a freedom from what we consider to be the rule of a foreign power virginia would not allow itself to be ruled by by some king over there in london and it's not about to let itself be ruled by some president in washington the reason why this may all appear as southern propaganda as gene cisco believed is because we are seeing the confederate side of the story and they're the ones telling it if that's all we got as an audience then i would agree with siskel but we also get a union perspective to help balance things out unlike their southern counterparts slavery is at the forefront of the discussion and a big reason why they fight speaking on the union's behalf is colonel lawrence chamberlain an educated college professor before the war who strongly opposed slavery through epic speeches or in private conversations he is the idealist who advocates the northern cause the only criticism i have is that bit where chamberlain comes across a runaway slave when i first saw the scene i thought it might briefly offer a new perspective from the slaves point of view but the opportunity isn't taken chamberlain instead looks at the man with pity and he never says a word which begs the question why even bother putting it in the movie in the first place but aside from that i think the union side was handled very well the decision to present both sides equally resulted in a much deeper movie that helped resonate with northern and southern audiences alike it would have been easy for the filmmakers to push through a contemporary agenda and change things but instead they trusted the history they were trying to tell but overall gettysburg's main focus is the battle itself and it goes above and beyond to recreate it as accurately as possible few films are made with such competence and a love for history and this one is able to rub shoulders with the greatest of epics films like torah torah torah a bridge too far and waterloo gettysburg is a part of that collective that all history buffs hold dear well that about wraps it up my name is nick hodges and thanks for watching history buffs and remember if you like the show help the channel grow if you wish to support history buffs then you can now do so at patreon and as always let me know in the comment section what you thought about gettysburg and of course what historical movie should i review next in the meantime check out the history bus twitter and facebook pages for new updates until then i'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: undefined

Views: 2,630,545

Rating: 4.9241033 out of 5

Keywords: History Buffs, Gettysburg, historical accuracy, historical inaccuracies, accurate, Robert E Lee, confederacy, Union, USA, CSA, pickett's charge, little round top, longstreet, Martin Sheen, tom berenger, jeff daniels, stephen lang, Pickett, peach orchard, cemetery hill, cemetery ridge gettysburg, culp's hill, John Buford, arthur lyon fremantle, american civil war, civil war reenactment, civil war reenactors

Id: jZ1f9vliwiA

Length: 24min 52sec (1492 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 19 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Esoteric_Beige_Chimp]

Watched this review last night and got some very interesting information about the behind the scenes aspects.

Top stuff.

[u/PubliusVarus]

This might be the first video from HistoryBuffs that I have had an issue with in terms of his usual message of "film vs history". The British character is appalling in Gettysburg. The fake accent, his non British Army (See Queen's Regulations) beard, the really terrible fake "redcoat" uniform they have him strutting around in (fact: he didn't bring it and even if he did, it didn't look like that).

Now I can see the replies already, you can forgive the characters terrible Yosemete Sam goatee if you believe he's unofficial, on a leave of absence and decided to run with the contemporary culture (ie Murica) but the film presents him as an official observer the "eyes and ears of Queen Victoria". If he was there in uniform, which he couldn't be.. because of the Crown's position on slavery; his appearance would have been conforming to the social norms and regulations as they pertained to the British Army. They even have him walking around with a cuppa on a tiny saucer... as if the hilarious accent didn't tip you off that he was "English" xD. Freemantle really was the dumbest part of that movie, painfully so. That sucks considering how awesome the movie is otherwise and how maticulously researched it is.

None of this takes away from the fact the film is brilliant (much better than the follow up Gods and Generals which. is abysmal). One last thing, stick with the theatrical version... the "Extended" edition is nonsense... there is no reason a movie that is over 4hrs long theatrically needs 15-20mins worth of scenes that were cut because they were terrible.

Thats all I have to add :D Love his work and I look forward to what comes next.