Thank you for your post and links. My husband is a bit of a Civil War buff. He liked the movie. Going in he assumed it was a war movie. The first several minutes were Saving Private Ryan/Civil War version. I had my eyes closed a lot to the brutality of war and thought, “I’ll not see any of the movie at this rate”. :) But it moved on to the actual story. My husband found it interesting on how much detail Gary Ross went into post-war.
My paternal Great Grandfather fought in Company C of the 29th Alabama Infantry, his brother, Ira, died in battle. My maternal Great Great Grandfather was in Company F of the 29th Alabama Infantry. A paternal Great Great Grandfather was in the 1st Regiment, South Carolina Volunteer Infantry at Fort Moultrie and Fort Sumter and never return home from the war.
The 29th Alabama Infantry Regiment was organized at Pensacola in February, 1862 with 1100 men engaged. The 29th was engaged at the Battle of Resaca with a loss of about 100 k and w, out of 1100 men engaged. At New Hope Church, the loss was very heavy, and at Peachtree Creek, the regiment was cut to pieces. On 28 July, near Atlanta, half of the regiment was killed and wounded in the fierce and protracted assault on the enemy's line. The 29th then moved into Tennessee with Gen'l John Bell Hood and lost very heavily in casualties at Franklin, and largely in casualties and prisoners at Nashville. A remnant of the 29th moved into the Carolinas where it was engaged at Kinston and Bentonville with considerable loss. It was consolidated with the 1st and 17th Regiments early in 1865, and fewer than 90 men surrendered at Durham Station, Orange County, NC on 26 April 1865.That was 1100 men decimated down to 90 men in three years. At that point my Great Grandfather was a brevet Captain because all of his officers were dead. A few weeks ago I stood at my GGF's grave with his brother's grave about fifteen feet away.
A deserter and murderer is a heinous criminal not to be glorified or aggrandized, especially for a few pieces of silver in Hollywood.