Gettysburg - My first HISTORY BUFFS reaction

I couldn't find where you reacted to Tora, Tora, Tora.

The Great Locomotive Chase

What do you think would be the resault if the union after Picket’s charge counterattacked General Lee’s army?

I agree. I would much rather have painstaking detail than have the history ruined for a phony plot angle.

I watched this movie over a dozen times and I never thought it was southern propaganda. I know from my own experience that the common southern soldier thought he was fighting for his state and slavery was not in his mind.

About the ground, everyone knows about the hills and ridge. However, just as important are the 2 large forests that cover the 2 flanks. Many armies in the past have sought ground where there were woods or forests that covered the flanks. Actually, this was more common than defending hills, IIRC. An open flank is very dangerous. In fact, the east/right flank of the XI corps was open and it being turned is why the corps was routed on the 1st day.

Been at Gettysburg too. It was almost 100 degrees when walking Pickett's Charge. Thought I was going to drop right there lol.

Best union general for me is Reynolds. He literally saved the Army of Virginia at 2nd Manassas from getting cutoff and annihilated. He could see the entire Union army take flight to try to make the bridge to cross to safety from his vantage point on the heights of where First Battle of Bull Run was fought. Longstreet's corp was coming through the forest on the high ground where he was located. So he fought delaying actions till the last moment as his troops slowly fought while finding suitable ground to hit Longstreet but at the same time engage Hill who was getting closer to his right flank so that AP Hills Corp couldn't cutoff Union troops racing toward the bridge; as he was untrenching to go to quick march because the units in front of him broke and fled. Reynolds literally took losses from two massive corps in trying to slow the advance from both corps in blocking the retreat. If Hill or Longstreet had cut off the retreat you are looking at about a 1/3 or more trapped and outnumbered on top of the losses the Union already had taken. IMO if that had happened Washington very well could have been taken. Beautiful area that is. Walked the entire battlefield. Took 8 hrs to walk it. Talk about being tired afterwards lol. Walking that where the house was at the top of the hill where the previous battle that was fought and looking at the land below with where the bridge was located amazes me to know end how his men pulled that off. I have never heard of a fighting retreat down a steep slope and not breaking while hitting a whole second unit at the bottom.

I was never comfortable with Martin Sheen as Lee. Sheen was more of a guy who observed things, passively. Check out the cool guy in Apocalypse Now with a rifle and soft spoken demeanor. Not sure it was accurate to portray Lee with Captain Willard.

Is the film perfect? No. Are there inaccuracies? Of course. But it does so well overall. I love this film. And it sparked civil war interests in who know how many people.

RIP to all the Union soldiers who died at Gettysburg. Their deaths were not in vain and God bless these United States

Martin Sheen was not a good choice to play Lee.

I remember that my grandma had an old homemade desk that her grandfather had made. One day, when I was looking around it, I found a hidden drawer that contained a pistol. I learned that he had kept that gun there in case any Confederate troops ever came across his house, and he wanted to make sure he had weapons set up around his house. The odds of him needing them were low since we're from Wisconsin, but he wasn't taking chances. He used to tell grandma stories he heard about the exploits of the Iron Brigade

I saw this in the theatre, and had to go 90 miles to do that. I went with a friend who had seen it in the theatre at least 5 times by then and probably another 5 or 6 times after I went with. One of the first two DVD's I bought, along with Kenneth Branagh's Henry V.

I love HistoryBuffs. But I was a little disappointed he never mentioned that the film is very faithful to a book, which is a work of historical fiction. Most of the lines of dialogue and the little side story lines ... all in the book written by the author. That would have been important for HistoryBuffs to lead with in his video.

Well here's a reason gene siskel isnt as well remembered as roger ebert.he was a pseudo intellectual hack. Gettysburg doesnt portray southerners as abject monsters because they were people, flawed and mistaken, but still people.

See history is so exciting and so highly dramatic in alot of ways movies never will be so it would mostly make better movies and shows to stick to the history.

Gary Gallagher is great. I still love hearing Shelby Foote and Ed Bearss talking about the Civil War. Who is your favorite?

its hard to imagine you as a 50 year old man and over weight from what ive seen i thought u would be considered fit or somthing

A review of review? That's just weird. Why not just do a review of Gettysburg itself?

I was traveling and had a free evening and watched a movie...and it was Gettyburg. What an overwhelming experience. What a great movie,

I love History Buffs. I hope you react to more of his videos. Love your videos

Love these videos. I can watch these all day.

There was an equally audacious charge at the right end of the line at about the same time.

Great movie but I just can't buy Martin Sheen as Robert E. Lee. Tom Berenger as Longstreet was a great bit of casting.

Regarding Stuart and "leaving Lee blind". Well, not ENTIRELY true. Stuart actually left two brigades behind with the ANV to provide reconnaisance, and screening. Problem was what we would now call "command climate". Lee didn't trust either of those two brigade commanders, and thus discounted what information they did provide. This was a fail on Stuart's part, as being their commander he should've known that Lee would not fully trust them without his (Stuart's) leadership. Ideally, he should've left his two best brigades with Lee, and exercising personal leadership took the other two with him.

actually Double day didn't fire the first shot. It was a soldier from Illinois. The battlefield trust goes over this in detail.

Just caught up on the first two episodes tonight. It was well done. Thanks for this.

I used to walk across the field of pickets charge with my grandfather every 4 th of July weekend for years as a child. Rip pappy Jon.

I was what was a core extra was in a couple of scenes most notably behind the rather portly Sargent that stopped Harrison in the beginning of the movie Yes I agree that Vicksburg strategically vastly more important

Chamberlain's encounter with the black man is in the novel, and very interesting one.

This is on my list of favorite movies as well. HB does a nice review of the movie and hits most the highlights well. One bone to pick though "Why you putting the boots to Chamberlain", I love that guy. From a school teacher to Major General in an army swarming with West Point grads give a man some lee way to be proud. I mean he must have had some real creds in the Army to be chosen to receive the formal surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia. Jeff Daniels did him proud with that performances. Thanks for giving HB some love his channel is outstanding as well.

Kudos for calling out Jeff Daniels performance, even though he’s from Michigan! Daniels, Sam Elliott, C Thomas Howell, Martin Sheen, Steve Lang, and Tom Berenger all gave wonderful performances and were well cast, even though the casting of some was a bit surprising. But I agree that Daniels and Elliott were probably the best of the best of the casting. I wish it hadn’t taken so long to make Gods and Generals because the 10 years aging of actors playing characters in roles that occurred BEFORE Gettysburg took away from that film a bit. But outstanding performances again, especially by Steve Lang.

You were a teenager in 93?

My history teacher was one of those reenactors. He definitely wasn't overweight

Although I do love the history buffs channel, sometimes he doesn't have context for some of his criticisms. (For example, he didn't like the lines that some dying soldiers said in We Were Soldiers, but they were what the soldiers actually said then they were dying.). That's my feeling on his criticism of Chamberlain's encounter with a runaway slave. In the book, that event is the trigger for the 'Killer Angels' conversation. Furthermore, Kilrain actually addresses a dialect issue saying that he doesn't understand anyone from the south.

I agree with you about Meade's absence from the movie (and the novel as well). It's too bad. I get the feeling that Shaara was not a fan of him, and the movie had a chance to rectify this by including him, but oh well, its still a great film.

I would be interested in your take on Atun-Shei's opinion of this film since he didn't like it. (I'll have to check to see it you've done that already.)

Yes! Finally I think I've asked for this few times!!!

Hello VTH, You were fair-minded in this one. That's not what I was expecting. For that I thank you. Keep up the good work.

So Gettysburg is on movie that I make sure to watch every year. It has a lot of sentimental value for me. I remember going to a reenactment I believe it was the 125th anniversary in 89 with my family and it being so hot there. then a few years later joining boy scouts and hearing about this movie. our scout master took us on a week long trip to tour the battle field and had us watch the movie before we went. every time I watch this movie I remember that time

The current narrator is annoying.

Could you do a reaction video to Atun-Shei's 3 part review of this movie called "Fixing Gettysburg"?

While i'll will not say that the movie is propaganda or annything. I do dislike the sentiment that things should be balanced. Because that is a wierd ask in this case if you ask me. Slavery is just morally wrong. A little bit of it is as wrong as a lot of it, dfending it in earnestness or ignorance are both bad. You could say that it is wrong to portray history in the conect of good and bad sides, but there really is a good and a bad side in this case. Even if the sides themselves might not be aware of it.

Lee was also not the man he had been at Chancellorsville, either, or certainly Antietam. That spring he had suffered a heart attack, expectable for a man of his age. It was also said that he was ill on the field, perhaps from diarhearia. Grant, who was at the same age that Lee was while Lee was in Mexico, says that he was to be in be in the field. In 1861 he was greying with a dark mustache, By 1863 he was already the greybeard we all recall. Under constant stress he aged much as Lincoln aged. At North Anna in 1864, shorn of his best commanders, he was unable to get from cot to spring the trap he had laid for Grant. So the Union Army was perhaps spared the kind of blood shedding he would suffer at Cold Harbour a few days later.

This will always be a special movie to me as someone who studies the United States Civil War. If I had only one problem with it, that would be the lack of bloodiness in the movie. People must remember that the literally bloodiness of this war cannot be understated. While we do see blood here and there, it is no where near the level of what it would have been in real life. I can only assume that production played a part in that but if you truly want to get a Civil War movie right you can't spare the blood. To me the best Civil War battle sequence in terms of being authentic if not accurate is the brief Battle of the Crater from the movie Cold Mountain.

Dont know if you mentioned it in your video on Chancellorsville....but Hooker had one last chance to win that battle when the now wounded Jackson's corps plus passed in front of Meade's entire, not too worn out corps.....Meade had them at the enfilade and asked Hooker for permission to attack them....Meade probably would have routed them had he been allowed to do so....but Hooker was already in retreat mode, so denied the request.

re...reienactors....they dont smell as bad the original soldiers....especially the Army of Northern VA....

If my commander told me to fix my bayonet, i would've sh*t myself. o0

Agree about your assessment of Gettysburg being THE turning point in the War.....i believe Lee himself once said that the War in the West would decide the fate of the Confederacy....and no offense to the South, but the South was losing that war from at least Shiloh and the Capture of Corinth MS onwards.....The North controlled huge swathes of the Western theater by the beginning of 1863, and could pretty much go where it wanted to West of the Alleghenies (think of that daring Cavalry raid)....

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