Gettysburg in Literature, Film and History: The Battle Heats Up on Day 1

Title: Gettysburg in Literature, Film and History: The Battle Heats Up on Day 1

Description: Today Sean, James and I continue our discussion of the real events and background of the Battle of Gettysburg as portrayed through the 1993 film Gettysburg. The action really begins to heat up in early July in southern Pennsylvania. We look at some of the big players and the early strategies they used to try and get the upper hand.

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Begin Transcript:

, [00:00:00] this is beyond the big screen podcast with your host, Steve Guerra. Welcome back to beyond the big screen. We have another installment of Hollywood hates history today. This is the second part of a four-part conversation on the incredible 1993. Classic in Gettysburg. We are joined by two civil war fanatics and podcasters.
Sean MacGyver of the common take a Texas history pod. And professor James early, a frequent contributor to beyond the big screen, the history of the papacy, along with Scott ranks, history unplugged podcast. Today, we will progress through the battle, including the first day of fighting. We will also discuss the major source of the movie, the 1974 historical fiction novel the killer angels by Michael Shaara.
[00:01:00] We have so much to talk about, so let’s get right to. If you have historical movies you love, or you hate, let me know, and maybe we can make it into an episode for Hollywood hates history. If you’d like to participate in Hollywood, hates history, send me an email to Steve at history. page.com. I’d love to hear from you, and maybe we can arrange to discuss some of these great, and maybe not so great movies.
Thank you again for listening and I will see you next time beyond the big screen.
so here we are, the first actual day of battle, which would, um, was Wednesday, July 1st, 1863. James, why don’t you give us a quick overview of the fighting and then Sean, we can dig in a little bit deeper. Okay. So as we’d seen the Confederate, I mean, sorry, the union cavalry under general, John Buford was deployed on [00:02:00] seminary Ridge, just west of Gettysburg.
Good high ground. And the Confederates are there and they fighting breaks out. Generally had ordered. The, uh, his division commanders that were in the front of his column, not to engage, not to get involved in combat, but they just couldn’t help. It. It just, it just happened because they were being attacked by the, by the unions, uh, forces.
They’re the, the cavalry that we mentioned. So Lee finally says, okay, go ahead and attack. And he sends in a second division. Uh, there’s one by Heath. He general Heath is the commander of, one of the divisions that got involved in the early fighting in general. Pender also gets involved and. So the cavalry’s outnumbered, so they begin to fall back.
And then the F the first of the union Corps arrives it’s under the command of general. John Reynolds, John Reynolds had a reputation of being one of the finest generals that all the army general Reynolds had actually been offered command of the entire army instead of meat, but he turned it down so general Reynolds, his [00:03:00] core comes up and they get into a very intense fight between the Confederates who are gradually advancing the.
Uh, to make a long story. Short general Reynolds is killed, uh, by a Confederate sharp shooter. He’s replaced temporarily, at least by general Abner Doubleday. This is before he invented baseball. No, I’m just kidding. He didn’t really mean baseball, but it really was Doubleday. Uh, the Confederates forced the union soldiers back.
They have to retreat through the town of Gettysburg. There is a little bit of house to house fighting, but for the most part, it’s a solid Confederate advanced pushing back the, uh, the blue coats. And at the same time as this general UL’s division is pushing in from the north. Those divisions. Pushes, uh, more of the union army back and the union army at the end of day, one ends up on the high ground, the very high ground that general Buford had hoped not to fall into the hands of the Confederate Confederates and it [00:04:00] does it.
And so they end up on seminary, seminary, sorry, cemetery Ridge. It’s confusing because there’s a seminary Ridge, which is where. Tennis cemetery. The first battle is at seminary and then they go to cemetery, which, uh, I have been to seminary and someone argue it’s actually the same thing anyway. Uh, so that by the end of day one, the union army is.
In a very good defensive position there on cemetery hill, which Sean already mentioned cemetery Ridge, which goes down to the south. And then also they have people on Culp’s hill, which is to the east and the position is shaped like a fish hook. It’s an excellent position. Uh, it’s very good in, in the terms of the fact that it has interior lines, which means.
You can quickly get forces from one side of the line to the other. We’ll put a map up or actually Steve, we’ll put a map up there, right? Steve, um, [00:05:00] Steve will do that and he’s a good guy, but anyway, you really need a map for this, but just think of an inverted fish hook. And, uh, one of the things that’s very important is that generally orders general, you will to take that hill if practicable, he means cemetery hill.
And that phrase if practicable, yeah. Extremely important because if Jackson had been the commander Jackson, would’ve said, oh, heck yeah, I’m taking the hill and he probably would’ve done it. Or at least he would’ve come close. General Yule decides it’s not practical. So he does not take the hill. I guess that’s a summary of day one, or at least from my perspective, what else you got?
That’s such a good place to stop too, because that’s such an odd wording practicable, because practicable sounds like practical. There is a pretty decent shade of difference between those two words was Lee being too clever by half by using that phrase that he [00:06:00] just used it the wrong way. Well, you have to keep in mind.
Lee had been working with Stonewall Jackson for well over a year, and those two men could almost read each other’s minds. Uh, Lee made very vague orders. A lot of the time. And he would just tell Jackson, I’m just paraphrasing here, but just get it done. Take that hill, do this. If you can. And Jackson would, would almost always do it.
Jackson was very aggressive and he just had a knack for understanding what Lee wanted and getting it done. You will, as a different man, general you’ll, uh, is not Stonewall Jackson. He’s nowhere near as aggressive and he’s brand new to the job. He’s unsure of himself. He doesn’t want to risk. He has been wounded.
He doesn’t want. Getting his army destroyed. So yes, it’s a very different situation. A couple of things. So later on in the book, lung street makes a note to another character that, uh, to an observer, that Lee’s habit was to give the orders to his subordinates and then to step back and [00:07:00] let them execute. He was not a micromanager.
He was not a person who. Got into the battle and was moving units around he’s he came up with the strategy, uh, and gave it to his, his, his core commanders and his division commanders to fulfill. The other thing was. He, uh, as far as you will goes, you’ll was a fine division commander, uh, who had served under, under Jackson and long street.
Makes a good point in the book that some end Lee, I think is he, the leader Longstreet makes the point that some people. Some in our good regiment commanders that don’t make good brigade brigade, commanders. Some men are good division commanders that don’t make good core commanders. Uh, so it’s just, uh, it just varies, you know, if you push a person up and promote them, they may not execute in the same way at their level.
APO was a great example of that. AP hill was one of the finest division commanders of the war. [00:08:00] Uh, he wasn’t as effective as a Corps commander. So you know, that that’s the other thing. And then the final thing is. I E Lee was a gentlemen of the, of the south, uh, and. It was a much different time. The language was more courtly.
And I think that’s where that practicable comes from is he, he had a gentlemanly way of asking for things of his subordinates. Whereas someone like Patton would say, go take that damn hill right in the later war until later, or even a grant who was a more rough homespun or a, or a Sherman would say your orders are to take the.
You know, it was, it was a gentleman’s way to ask his, his men, his subordinates to deliver something, to do something for them. Uh, it was a, it was not necessarily a commander’s way in the way we probably think of, and, and it had worked for him up to that point. And