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Post by Toby Benoit on Oct 22, 2006 16:27:57 GMT 12.75
I have read Michael Shaara's novel, "Gettysburg" about the events leading up to and during that awesome battle and was swept away by it. The movie, a Ted Turner production in no way does the book justice. I highly reccommend it to ANY person with any amount of civil War interest.
I have also read Jeff (Michael's little boy) Shaara's novel, "The Killer Angels" about the events from Fort Sumter on up until the death of Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson and was completely mesmreized by the rich writing and historical detail and accuracy. The movie, "God & Generals", also a Ted Turner production, could never come close to this great book. It's very high on my list of personal favorites.
Now, I am half way through reading Jeff Shaara's novel, "The Last Full Measure", the final installment of the Civil War trilogy began by his father Michael. This story opens with Lee's line of retreat from the battle of Gettysburg and carries the reader through the final conflicts of the war on the Easter front between Grant and Lee. I am awestruck by this authors ability to paint a picture! My stomach turns in anxious knots as my Confederate heroes fall and the misery of a lost cause grows. The research has been done no less thorough than that evident in the first two novels and although I'm not finished reading it, this book is as well, high up on my list of reccommended reading.
If you have the opportunity to enjoy any or all of these novels, I hope that you take advantage of it. I'm sure you won't be sorry.
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Post by shiloh on Oct 25, 2006 5:20:39 GMT 12.75
I am watching the sites for casting calls for "Last Full Measure" but there is currently nobody willing to film it after "Gods and Generals" flopped so bad. I have heard that they learned the lesson that you cannot make a decent movie about 2 year events with that one, so when/if anyone does "LFM" they'll make it like a mini-series such as "Band of Brothers" was. I hope that is right.
It is very important to realize that these are indeed fictional novels based on historical events. There are all sorts of historical discrepencies in these books and the movies based on them that make for good readiong and watching, but are not factual.
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Post by Toby Benoit on Oct 25, 2006 5:55:42 GMT 12.75
They are historical fiction, but the history is brought to light. Many Americans that had no knowledge of the Civil War will be educated and inspired.
If you haven't read them...do. I think you'll be pleasantly surpised.
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Post by shiloh on Oct 26, 2006 2:12:49 GMT 12.75
That is true. The movies and books based in history make the history neat and tidy enough for the average person to become interested. I have not red them myself, not needing to "waste" time reading fiction, but don't discourage others from reading them. My wife loved the books, but then she reads about 100 pages an hour and can knock those books out in 2-3 days each. I read very slowly and can therefore only spend time on real history books.
In many cases, I think the actual facts of history are so unbelievable that the reader or viewer would laugh at the facts as "impossible" and discount the story. Sometimes, "Hollywooding" a tale has to go in the reverse of the norm and make the fact more believeable. Usually however Hollywood embelishs events to make them seem more appealing to teh viewer.
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Post by Toby Benoit on Oct 26, 2006 6:45:08 GMT 12.75
Hollywood could never come close to the unimageinable horror of battle, much less battles fought on such a grand scale.
Charles Frazier wrote a book called, "Cold Mountain" and it was adapted to a movie and really did qute well. Of course it was fiction, but it opened with the underground explosion at Petersburg.
The book took more time to describe the even than the movie did, but there is no way, book or movie, you could ever capture something so horrible. However, before reading the book, I never knew anything about the explosion and Petersburg was just a name I'd briefly encountered in my white-washed public school history books.
In the last couple of years, I've become quite a student of the war (with much thanks to yourself) and am in awe of the period. I pray that our country never experiences warfare on that scale ever again.
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Post by shiloh on Oct 27, 2006 2:59:34 GMT 12.75
Petersburg was the most famous of the craters, but Grant first used the tactic at Vicksburg - twice. Both times there met with the same general result as at Petersburg's bigger crater. Grant's armies were blessed with a lot of miners who could dig fast and safe. The CS troops had fewer miners although there were some that were used to dig countermines to try to find the US miners under the works. It never happened, but it would have been an interesting tale of the Civil War had the miners of the 2 sides fought an underground battle beneath an above ground battlefield.
Cold Mt movie did a decent job of the crater scene, although I wonder how a bunny would have survived the weeks it seemed to have between 2 starving armies of thousands of armed men. The best thing that movie did was show what the home front in some parts was indeed like. There are still many terrible tales in localities down here of locals warring against the citizens left behind throughout the war. In my own family, 2 collateral ancestors were captured in Columbia, TN as they visitied home by some locals either US sympathizers, or more likley thugs looking for the bounties the US placed on captured Rebs' heads. They were hauled to the city cemetery and hung in a giant oak that still stood there until about 30-40 years ago from what I have heard. These were neighbors of theirs although nobody was ever convicted of the attrocity and the main suspect, a Mr. Stone, on his death bed called my Gr-Gr-Gr grandmother to his side and told her that he did not kill her sons, but that was all he said. The 2 cousins/uncles of mine were also hung with a 3rd commrade of theirs all who'd been granted leave after the Battle of Nashville to visit home as the AoT retreated through the area. They'd survived years of war, and many battles that make things like Iraq look like Sunday school picnics, only to be hung by neighbors at the end. Stuff like that went on all along, and families suspected eachother of various attrocities for the rest of their lives, even through the generations.
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