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Or when Brig. General Buford growls through his clenched teeth “...we will deny the enemy the high ground!” Sam Elliott rocks! How ‘Gettysburg’ is not in the top 5 is beyond me...it should be swapped with ‘Gone With the Wind’ which is little more than a soap opera set during the war, IMHO.

+1.

Although it should be noted that "Gettysburg" is largely based on the historical fiction novel "The Killer Angels." Which is a great book and the entry point into Civil War history for many (including myself). But also should be taken as historical fiction where the author (Michael Shaara - who we lost way too soon. His son Jeff has done a really admirable job in picking up where his dad left off) took some liberties with and often cherry-picked the sources he used for its basis.

For example, Shaara's (and therefore "Gettysburg's") account of the defense of Little Round Top is based pretty much solely in the post-battle writings of Chamberlain. Which have been disputed (somewhat) and were pretty self-serving - becoming increasingly more-so as Chamberlain recounted the story over the rest of his life.

Not meant as a criticism, btw, but as an acknowledgement.

Two additional points. First, since Gettysburg heavily leveraged the reenactment community the soldiers were decidedly older, heavier (just sayin') and better equipped (particularly, if not exclusively, on the Confederate side) than the actual soldiers of the time were. Second, if you see the 150th Anniversary Commemorative Edition Blu-Ray on an HDTV the fake beards on the more prominent characters (particularly Longstreet and Armitage) are blatantly obvious ... but people need to keep in mind that the movie was shot to be seen mainly on 28" old-style TVs.

Agree on all of your points, but all of these movies listed
rely on historical fiction to one extent or another, 'Glory'
included, which is probably my favorite civil war movie.
I loved reading 'Killer Angels' as an undergrad in Dr. Gary
Gallagher's civil war course at Penn State, which is why I
enjoyed 'Gettysburg' so much.

As to Chamberlain's embellishments, the bottom line is that
the 20th Maine held the end of the Union line against a
numerically superior force on Little Round Top.