It was a very well done film, although it wasn’t all historically true. It did probably give some great insights, though. The Union English instructor character (commander who ordered the bayonet charge) was based on a real man, who wrote a book from his own notes about his own experiences at Gettysburg, IIRC. He might have admired General Lee much more in some ways than the producers/writers of the movie did, IIRC, although he found Lee’s court-like bows and hat to be a little comical, Renaissance-like and old fashioned, maybe (going on dim memory of reading the book here).
It’s very true that most southerners by far were not in favor of slavery. The War was started and administered by big shots on both sides, who also controlled the media then (including voices in speeches). Slavery—anti and pro—was very important to some in leadership and not the main reason for others. There were also a few who, along with European big shots (including Brits), had their eyes on countries south of the border for plantations. Most of the people of the South were at the whims of the political/regulator class back then, just as people of the North were.
The Civil War should also be understood in the context of the resurgence of the time in romanticism, BTW. People on both sides played that out, having ingested quite a bit of it while studying in their younger years. That resurgence of interest in romanticism of the 1800s might not have been good for us (see Anthony, Beecher, Hawthorne and many other suspects), but then it’s easy to be moralizing and philosophical as a grumpy, old man. ;-)
grumpy old men LOL.
Had an argument with a elementary school teacher about this.
She said it was all about freeing blacks but when I pointed out to her that the border states had slavery and he did not stop slavery in those states or even stop it in areas he had power in then she became a little rattled.
I asked her if she read the documents and his speeches and she said she read “killing Lincoln” by big mouth O.R [sigh]
Seems she had no clue about the border states nor the areas Lincoln had power in and I told her to read the order second to the last paragraph and she said she would.Weeks later she admitted she never did and still stuck by her own public school views of when she was 10