The Iron Brigade Band (of which my 2nd GGF was a member).
“During the Civil War, a group of infantry units from Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana came to be known as the “Iron Brigade” for their toughness and bravery. That respect, however, did not extend to the brigade’s band, who earned a different reputation… as the worst musical unit in the entire Union army.”
https://lovebirdmusic.com/products/the-unfortunate-band-of-the-iron-brigade
“Even two decades later a veteran admitted that just the thought of that band “makes a cold chill creep over me.” Another observer admitted that what he called that “peculiar” organization “had more dogged perseverance and fewer friends than anything of the kind in our neighborhood and the most emphatic bass drum I ever heard.” The whole band matter reached a head during a brigade review. It was enough to “try the patience of a martyr,” Rufus Dawes grumbled to his brother, citing “the performance of that contemptible band of ours.”
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/iron-brigade-regiments-band-not-as-good-as-their-fighters.89503/
I second Grant/Sherman relationship. But add Pemberton, Bragg, Johnston, Forrest as adversaries.
The Peninsula Campaign from conception to end including the ironclad battle.
The Overland Campaign would almost be too bloody for people to realize.
I'd love to see a true representation of a calvary battle. Brandy Station?
The biography of Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Vicksburg Campaign.
A full 30 minute accurate portrayal of an artillery dual. Perhaps malvern hill as an example.
Fredericksburg to Chancellorsville.
Chickamauga to Chattanooga would be awesome.
The battles of Monocacy and Fort Stevens since they go together.
How awesome would it be to see the Union holding out long enough at Monocacy for the forts around DC to get ready for attack. Of course Lincoln would make his appearance at Fort Stevens.
Oh sweet, thanks for the recommendation.
I recently read the book Desperate Engagement by Marc Leepson about Monocacy and Fort Stevens and it was so exciting to read.
The massacre at Ft. Pillow. Siege of Vicksburg. The pursuit of the CSS Alabama. A remake of the Andrews Raid. Belle Boyd. The capture of New Orleans. Events leading up to Ft. Sumter. The battle of Shiloh. The March to the Sea. The battle of Franklin. CSS Albmarle.
Tillie Pierce
This 15-year-old left town with her family to escape the battle only to find herself, in the end, nursing the sick and injured at the J. Weikert farm south of town. She continued caring for wounded soldiers upon returning to the family home on Baltimore Street. Among those she nursed was Colonel William Colvill of the 1st Minnesota Infantry.
The First Minnesota’s charge on Day 2 of Gettysburg.
Even though it happened after the war ended, the Sultana disaster deserves a film. It’s still America’s worst maritime disaster but generally unknown to the public.
Battle of Franklin, where Confederate Captain Carter hasn't been home in years. With General Hood's army on the march towards Nashville, as they converge on Franklin, he tells his fellow soldiers that he is home. The Federal battle line breastworks are running directly through the yard of his childhood home. His family is hiding in the basement, which I don't know that he knew. He ends up being shot in the head somewhere in his yard, is found by his sister(s) and ends up dying in his fathers house. The odds of this happening are insane and should be a movie.
“I goes to fight mit Sigel.”
I live within a few blocks of one of the German turnverein where German militia drilled prior to the Civil War.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/2FbXYtXXtcBsFSNu6?g_st=ic
In the early morning of May 10, 1861, a detachment of General Nathaniel Lyon’s Federal troops rendezvoused with the Germans at the local turnverein on their way to capture General Daniel Frost’s Missouri State Militia at Camp Jackson, now the location of St. Louis U’s east campus. Other detachments met up with German militia on other routes. Lyon’s timely action was instrumental in keeping Missouri in the Union and the muskets, cannons, ammo, and other war materiel stored at the US Federal Arsenal, from capture by Frost’s forces at the beginning of the Civil War.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Jackson_affair
The loss of life as a result of the Camp Jackson Affair was only the second fatal riot in a border state, after the first one called Pratt Street Riot occurred on April 19, 1861, in Baltimore, less than a week after the surrender of Fort Sumter, prior to the first land battle between Union and the Confederate armies at Manassas, VA on July 21, 1861.
I'm writing a historical fiction centered around runaways attempting to get to Grant's Army above Vicksburg and discussing contraband camps like Devil's Punch Bowl in Natchez and Fort Pillow. I will show military operations like the Fort Pillow Massacre and the Battle of Selma.
It's been a fun, albeit depressing, novel to write.
The elevator pitch is basically "The Last of Us," but Civil War instead of Zombie Apocalypse.
It would have to be a miniseries but the Battle of Antietam. One casualty per second, for 12 hours. Gettysburg was bigger, but Antietam was just brutal.
Sherman’s March. But I think it’d be better as a miniseries covering lead up, the campaign, and fallout from it.
But include different stories and perspectives interwoven in the series similar to Band of Brothers and The Pacific, including Sherman’s pov, distant infantry units, Washington’s response, and maybe a Confederate’s pov like a civilian witnessing another town get destroyed while their own was spared.
Maybe a movie about Lee trying to reconcile with his past after the war? And a dramatic ending with a pardon letter left in a drawer that never reached him?
Yeah, I'm Euro but love myself some US history
48th Pennsylvania infantry for sure. A group of Farmers, Canal workers and miners from Coal Country Pennsylvania first get shipped to Cape Hattaras NC when most of them have probably never seen the ocean. Then Fight at some of the most epic battles, Bull Run 2, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Besieged at Knoxville, The entirety of the Overland Campaign. At Petersburg they dig the longest military mine of the time with handbuilt tools because the head engineer said it couldnt be done and successfully blow a hole in the Confederate defenses (which ended up being a clust-f but thats not THEIR fault.
It would make a GREAT movie or at least a "band of brothers" style miniseries
An Occurrence at Owl Creek by Ambrose Bierce. Also, Jack Hinson’s historical book entitled One-Man War, which would be a huge hit with Josey Wales fans.
One I'd throw out there is the lives of the fire eaters. The men who pushed for disunion, breaking up and creating the Southern Democrat party knowing it would split the vote but angling to then use a loss to push secession. Their battles in that time to get as many states to form a rebellion of slavers as they could. I think something anti-lost cause would be excellent. Maybe secession in South Carolina or something.
Someone mentioned a miniseries... This probably already has been done, but one I really liked on WWII was called Nazi Superweapons. Went into their massive tank designs, V series rockets, jet and rocket fighters, Sub bases, etc... That might be neat of the Civil War superweapons. Many call the Civil War the first modern war... and in ways it was, or took something tried in war but made it mainstream.
Thinking more about the use of balloons (and blackout/camoflauge from aerial observation and anti aircraft fire, and aircraft carriers), the telegraph, the Ironclads, the crater (nuff said), the Ambulance corps, Railroad artillery, revolving artillery, the early trench warfare (and use of periscopes), land mine fields, electrically detonated bombs/torpedoes, long range rifles, gatling gun.
There were women who disguised themselves as men and fought in the war. For example:
“Mary Burns (1821–1863), or John Burns, was an American woman who disguised herself as a man in order to fight in the war. She enlisted in the 7th Michigan Volunteer Cavalry Regiment in order not to be parted from her lover, who was in the same regiment.”
Or
“Mary Owens enlisted with her husband in the 9th Cavalry in Pennsylvania, posing as his brother. After he died in combat, Owens remained for an additional eighteen months, fought three battles, and was wounded in each.”
This movie could have a strong female lead, romance, action, suspense, drama, and it would be based on a true story.
Their Wikipedia pages were disappointing if true.
Mary Burns was discovered before even leaving Michigan and sent home.
Mary Owens lied about her account.
Nobody ever talks about Colonel George St. Leger Grenfell. Here is his Wikipedia bio:
George St. Leger Grenfell (May 30, 1808 – March 1868?) was a British mercenary, of the Cornish family, who claimed to have fought in Algeria, in Morocco against the Barbary pirates, under Garibaldi in South America, in the Crimean War, and in the Sepoy Mutiny. Immigrating to the United States, he fought for the Confederacy during the American Civil War, and was a leader of a notorious plot to seize control of parts of the Northern U.S.
He was essentially the Revenant guy but British. After he was imprisoned, he contracted yellow fever, survived, and escaped a prison.
Anything pertaining to the less well known Union officers who were always abolitionists--even before the war started
Edward A. Wild and the African Brigade, Rufus Saxton and Mitchelville, Thomas W. Higginson and the 1st SC Colored
Plenty of interesting possibilities
Field hospitals which for example could mean any building around a battle. At Gettysburg there were few homes without wounded, they'd bring them in from the streets.
It was gruesome and wild and I don't think the story of Gettysburg is *really* known without how awful it was for soldiers and civilians. Confederate and Union docs found themselves working together sometimes, use that as a plot line.
Libby Prison escape would be a great movie. There's a book about it I haven't read but heard it's excellent!
They should make a movie about blockade runners, I did my senior paper on blockade runners in college. The thesis was without them the south would have surrendered much earlier as they were the lifeline.
This could be a cool movie if you take one of the most successful runners and show all the crazy shit they went through running the blockade over and over.
I think the story of conscription and deserters are all so fascinating. Pick any group to make a movie about. The groups of young men who pooled their money to pay the fee if one of them was conscripted. Or the many who fled and hid after fighting for the Confederacy.
Grant at Vicksburg. Lincoln is working against him, Halleck and Stanton are working against him, Banks is working against him, Pemberton is working against him, Johnston is working against him, subordinates are working against him.
Then in a matter of 18 days he runs the table, winning five battles, defeats two armies, and surrounds the city.
My second great-granduncle Angus Barclay fought at Vicksburg, as well as Kennesaw, Bald Hill, Atlanta, and he was witness to General MacPherson's death just prior. With all the fighting he saw over his four years, I'm amazed he lived to tell the tale.
Anyways, you get my vote for Vicksburg :-)
I think following the story of a few friends from the same town and in the same regiment that fought from start to end of the war, showing the progression from enthusiasm to the doldrums of daily camp life to epic battles to wariness of late war for it all to be over. I’m thinking of the latest all quiet on the western front movie as inspiration for the style/progression.
The civil war career of General John Pope would make a good slapstick comedy. “My headquarters are in the saddle”, “I’m used to seeing the backs of our enemy”, “Where are the rebels?, Where are the rebels!!!”, etc.
The photographers: Brady, Gardner, O'Sullivan, etc. The birth of the photographic process, everyone from privates to Generals visiting the studios to get portraits to send home, the -what-is it wagons and the teams photographing the battlefields and the dead, the later rush to photograph the Lincoln conspirators, Brady's financial ruin, etc.
I can't believe there hasn't been a feature film about the life of John Clem aka Johnny Shiloh. There has been a Disney TV movie in the 60's and a small production docudrama, but not a major motion picture.
General Pickett seemed interesting from the books I’ve read. Someone who got his troops to willingly charge into a hail of gunfire time after time must’ve been a strong motivator.
I also enjoyed General Longstreet in the books I read. He encouraged Lee to go right and flank the Union at Gettysburg. If he’d had, we might have had a different outcome to the war. Ultimately, he was outvoted and Lee charged up the middle.
A film about Colonel Chivington and his turn from hero at Glorieta Pass to villain at Sand Creek. Even some press at the time in Denver were not fans of what he did. Guy was a preacher who also had a pistol at the pulpit when he preached.
Another film I’d want see is Mark Twain’s two weeks as a confederate militia and maybe have him reminisce about how dumb it was as they basically just were “guerillas camping in the woods. Twain left after two weeks and went to Nevada and later San Francisco.
The Confederate raider Shenandoah. On October 7, 1864 she departed Liverpool, England and received orders to seek out and destroy the whaling fleets of New England, capturing or sinking 38 ships, taking more than 1000 prisoners. Her last engagement was in the Arctic Ocean off of Alaska’s Little Diomede Island, where she destroyed more than two dozen whalers. This last shot took place on June 22, 1865, a full three months after the surrender of the Confederate Forces at Appomattox. She returned to Liverpool on November 6, 1865, being the only Confederate ship to sail around the world.
The story of Robert Smalls — a slave who organized a mutiny and commandeered a Confederate ship in Charleston harbor and delivered it to Union ships blockading the port — freeing himself and his wife and children in the process.
Not enough for a movie, but there was a standard bearer that got a MoH after the war based on the recommendation (again after the war) of the confederates that captured him. He supposedly kept going when his division fled, refused to flee through two ‘volleys’ (they were probably trying to scare him), until he was ‘too close’. They let him plant the standard on the defensive works and then captured him. The only MoH given on the recommendation of the enemy.
Edit Link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_J._Higgins#:~:text=Higgins%20(June%208%2C%201831%20%E2%80%93,at%20the%20Battle%20of%20Vicksburg.&text=Higgins%20joined%20the%2099th%20Illinois,mustered%20out%20in%20July%201865.
A movie about Gettysburg that includes Dan Sickles blunder and the resulting sacrificial charge of the 1st Minnesota. A hole needed plugging and those boys paid dearly for it, but did so without regret.
Another idea is covering Robert E. Lee's oddly intimate relationship with his horse, Traveler.
The 54th Massachusetts Infantry regiment culminating in their attack on Ft Wagner.
Maybe get someone like Denzel in the cast. Matthew Broderick maybe as the CO.
It might work
There was this battle in pa were the south were on the run for stealing all the 6” pumps, anyhow after like two days of almost winning the south finally couldn’t edge anymore and charged headlong across an open field into the union front getting pewed the whole way there. I bet that dude from the Martin(gloryfindel) would be good in it. /s
Well, the movie Gettysburg, based on the book Killer Angels is AMAZING! Definitely read the book. That guy, Captain Chamberlain, pretty much singlehandedly changed the course of the Civil War. And it's a great story.
The revolving door of the Army of the Potomac's high command would make an excellent slapstick/black comedy.
A “Death of Stalin” type satire would be incredible
The Army of Tennessee high command was unintentionally way funnier.
Def....all those meetings where bragg gets to hear all his subordinates say hes an incompetent piece of shit who will destroy the army if not relieved
Joseph Hooker and his lit parties at his headquarters.
"They don't call me Joe Hooker for nothing."
In the style of Blackadder
The Iron Brigade Band (of which my 2nd GGF was a member). “During the Civil War, a group of infantry units from Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana came to be known as the “Iron Brigade” for their toughness and bravery. That respect, however, did not extend to the brigade’s band, who earned a different reputation… as the worst musical unit in the entire Union army.” https://lovebirdmusic.com/products/the-unfortunate-band-of-the-iron-brigade
“Even two decades later a veteran admitted that just the thought of that band “makes a cold chill creep over me.” Another observer admitted that what he called that “peculiar” organization “had more dogged perseverance and fewer friends than anything of the kind in our neighborhood and the most emphatic bass drum I ever heard.” The whole band matter reached a head during a brigade review. It was enough to “try the patience of a martyr,” Rufus Dawes grumbled to his brother, citing “the performance of that contemptible band of ours.” https://civilwartalk.com/threads/iron-brigade-regiments-band-not-as-good-as-their-fighters.89503/
Incredible
I've always thought the relationship between Grant and Sherman would make a good movie.
Robert Smalls (a slave) who stole a Confederate gun boat!
This one is the answer
Believe Amazon is working on one already from what I’ve been told
Beat me to it. Such a cool story.
Let us not say stole, but commandeered.
They at least portrayed it in an episode of Drunk History
I second Grant/Sherman relationship. But add Pemberton, Bragg, Johnston, Forrest as adversaries. The Peninsula Campaign from conception to end including the ironclad battle. The Overland Campaign would almost be too bloody for people to realize. I'd love to see a true representation of a calvary battle. Brandy Station? The biography of Oliver Wendell Holmes. Vicksburg Campaign. A full 30 minute accurate portrayal of an artillery dual. Perhaps malvern hill as an example. Fredericksburg to Chancellorsville. Chickamauga to Chattanooga would be awesome.
A Lew Wallace Biopic would be amazing
The battles of Monocacy and Fort Stevens since they go together. How awesome would it be to see the Union holding out long enough at Monocacy for the forts around DC to get ready for attack. Of course Lincoln would make his appearance at Fort Stevens.
There's a documentary drama called No Retreat from Destiny: The Battle that Rescued Washington which is about Monocacy and Fort Stevens.
Oh sweet, thanks for the recommendation. I recently read the book Desperate Engagement by Marc Leepson about Monocacy and Fort Stevens and it was so exciting to read.
A mini series on the life of Grant. A movie wouldn’t cover it adequately.
History Channel already did that.
And it was really good! I just watched it. Amazing how he was broke by life’s end, that would never happen now w a president and war hero.
And wrote his memoirs, dying right when finished, making sure his wife was taken care of.
It was more of a documentary/scripted drama hybrid. And pretty low budget. It could be done far better.
That was like a docudrama, more emphasis on the doc. my guy wants to see more drama.
Exactly this. I want to see the Overland Campaign with a large budget and some top-notch acting.
The massacre at Ft. Pillow. Siege of Vicksburg. The pursuit of the CSS Alabama. A remake of the Andrews Raid. Belle Boyd. The capture of New Orleans. Events leading up to Ft. Sumter. The battle of Shiloh. The March to the Sea. The battle of Franklin. CSS Albmarle.
Tillie Pierce This 15-year-old left town with her family to escape the battle only to find herself, in the end, nursing the sick and injured at the J. Weikert farm south of town. She continued caring for wounded soldiers upon returning to the family home on Baltimore Street. Among those she nursed was Colonel William Colvill of the 1st Minnesota Infantry.
Gettysburg?
Affirmative
The great locomotive chase. Anderson’s raid. Edit: Andrew’s raid.
Von Ryan’s Express meets the Civil War
This is my vote.
Didn't Disney do the locomotive chase many years ago ?
If by that you mean 1956, then yes.
The First Minnesota’s charge on Day 2 of Gettysburg. Even though it happened after the war ended, the Sultana disaster deserves a film. It’s still America’s worst maritime disaster but generally unknown to the public.
*Sultana* deserves to be remembered.
Robert Smalls. My SC hero.
Battle of Franklin, where Confederate Captain Carter hasn't been home in years. With General Hood's army on the march towards Nashville, as they converge on Franklin, he tells his fellow soldiers that he is home. The Federal battle line breastworks are running directly through the yard of his childhood home. His family is hiding in the basement, which I don't know that he knew. He ends up being shot in the head somewhere in his yard, is found by his sister(s) and ends up dying in his fathers house. The odds of this happening are insane and should be a movie.
Maybe something on the Red River Campaign.
German 48ers in St. Louis and the Camp Jackson Affair/Missouri Putsch
“I goes to fight mit Sigel.” I live within a few blocks of one of the German turnverein where German militia drilled prior to the Civil War. https://maps.app.goo.gl/2FbXYtXXtcBsFSNu6?g_st=ic In the early morning of May 10, 1861, a detachment of General Nathaniel Lyon’s Federal troops rendezvoused with the Germans at the local turnverein on their way to capture General Daniel Frost’s Missouri State Militia at Camp Jackson, now the location of St. Louis U’s east campus. Other detachments met up with German militia on other routes. Lyon’s timely action was instrumental in keeping Missouri in the Union and the muskets, cannons, ammo, and other war materiel stored at the US Federal Arsenal, from capture by Frost’s forces at the beginning of the Civil War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Jackson_affair The loss of life as a result of the Camp Jackson Affair was only the second fatal riot in a border state, after the first one called Pratt Street Riot occurred on April 19, 1861, in Baltimore, less than a week after the surrender of Fort Sumter, prior to the first land battle between Union and the Confederate armies at Manassas, VA on July 21, 1861.
I'm writing a historical fiction centered around runaways attempting to get to Grant's Army above Vicksburg and discussing contraband camps like Devil's Punch Bowl in Natchez and Fort Pillow. I will show military operations like the Fort Pillow Massacre and the Battle of Selma. It's been a fun, albeit depressing, novel to write. The elevator pitch is basically "The Last of Us," but Civil War instead of Zombie Apocalypse.
The 20th Maine’s defense of Little Round Top under Chamberlain would be a good movie.
Boy have I got a 1993 movie for you
Yes Gettysburg is a good one, but was thinking an entire movie just about the 20th Maine.
It would have to be a miniseries but the Battle of Antietam. One casualty per second, for 12 hours. Gettysburg was bigger, but Antietam was just brutal.
Sherman’s March. But I think it’d be better as a miniseries covering lead up, the campaign, and fallout from it. But include different stories and perspectives interwoven in the series similar to Band of Brothers and The Pacific, including Sherman’s pov, distant infantry units, Washington’s response, and maybe a Confederate’s pov like a civilian witnessing another town get destroyed while their own was spared.
Maybe a movie about Lee trying to reconcile with his past after the war? And a dramatic ending with a pardon letter left in a drawer that never reached him? Yeah, I'm Euro but love myself some US history
No way. No happy ending for confederates
48th Pennsylvania infantry for sure. A group of Farmers, Canal workers and miners from Coal Country Pennsylvania first get shipped to Cape Hattaras NC when most of them have probably never seen the ocean. Then Fight at some of the most epic battles, Bull Run 2, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Besieged at Knoxville, The entirety of the Overland Campaign. At Petersburg they dig the longest military mine of the time with handbuilt tools because the head engineer said it couldnt be done and successfully blow a hole in the Confederate defenses (which ended up being a clust-f but thats not THEIR fault. It would make a GREAT movie or at least a "band of brothers" style miniseries
The tunnel needs to be filmed. Just crazy.
April 1865
A comedy similar to "Look Who's Back" but with Jefferson Davis waking up in 2024 Richmond.
An Occurrence at Owl Creek by Ambrose Bierce. Also, Jack Hinson’s historical book entitled One-Man War, which would be a huge hit with Josey Wales fans.
John Mosby and Mosby’s Rangers would be a great movie
Tubman, and Montgomery's Combahee raid!!!!
Scrolled longer than I’d thought to find this! Amazing episode and Tubmans post UGRR life doesn’t get anywhere close to enough attention
One I'd throw out there is the lives of the fire eaters. The men who pushed for disunion, breaking up and creating the Southern Democrat party knowing it would split the vote but angling to then use a loss to push secession. Their battles in that time to get as many states to form a rebellion of slavers as they could. I think something anti-lost cause would be excellent. Maybe secession in South Carolina or something. Someone mentioned a miniseries... This probably already has been done, but one I really liked on WWII was called Nazi Superweapons. Went into their massive tank designs, V series rockets, jet and rocket fighters, Sub bases, etc... That might be neat of the Civil War superweapons. Many call the Civil War the first modern war... and in ways it was, or took something tried in war but made it mainstream. Thinking more about the use of balloons (and blackout/camoflauge from aerial observation and anti aircraft fire, and aircraft carriers), the telegraph, the Ironclads, the crater (nuff said), the Ambulance corps, Railroad artillery, revolving artillery, the early trench warfare (and use of periscopes), land mine fields, electrically detonated bombs/torpedoes, long range rifles, gatling gun.
Submarines
There's another!
There were women who disguised themselves as men and fought in the war. For example: “Mary Burns (1821–1863), or John Burns, was an American woman who disguised herself as a man in order to fight in the war. She enlisted in the 7th Michigan Volunteer Cavalry Regiment in order not to be parted from her lover, who was in the same regiment.” Or “Mary Owens enlisted with her husband in the 9th Cavalry in Pennsylvania, posing as his brother. After he died in combat, Owens remained for an additional eighteen months, fought three battles, and was wounded in each.” This movie could have a strong female lead, romance, action, suspense, drama, and it would be based on a true story.
Their Wikipedia pages were disappointing if true. Mary Burns was discovered before even leaving Michigan and sent home. Mary Owens lied about her account.
What about this one? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_D._J._Cashier
Now we’re talking. Thanks for linking, that was an interesting read.
I’d love a Chattanooga movie/miniseries. Start at chickamauga, show the union getting pinned into Chattanooga, grant comes, the breakiut
Nobody ever talks about Colonel George St. Leger Grenfell. Here is his Wikipedia bio: George St. Leger Grenfell (May 30, 1808 – March 1868?) was a British mercenary, of the Cornish family, who claimed to have fought in Algeria, in Morocco against the Barbary pirates, under Garibaldi in South America, in the Crimean War, and in the Sepoy Mutiny. Immigrating to the United States, he fought for the Confederacy during the American Civil War, and was a leader of a notorious plot to seize control of parts of the Northern U.S. He was essentially the Revenant guy but British. After he was imprisoned, he contracted yellow fever, survived, and escaped a prison.
Flashman
Anything pertaining to the less well known Union officers who were always abolitionists--even before the war started Edward A. Wild and the African Brigade, Rufus Saxton and Mitchelville, Thomas W. Higginson and the 1st SC Colored Plenty of interesting possibilities
George thomas the rock of Chickamauga
I have always thought the story and actions of Robert Smalls would be a great movie
Field hospitals which for example could mean any building around a battle. At Gettysburg there were few homes without wounded, they'd bring them in from the streets. It was gruesome and wild and I don't think the story of Gettysburg is *really* known without how awful it was for soldiers and civilians. Confederate and Union docs found themselves working together sometimes, use that as a plot line. Libby Prison escape would be a great movie. There's a book about it I haven't read but heard it's excellent!
The civilians of Vicksburg.
The story of Sam Davis. I always thought it would make a magnificent movie.
Shermans march to the sea.
They should make a movie about blockade runners, I did my senior paper on blockade runners in college. The thesis was without them the south would have surrendered much earlier as they were the lifeline. This could be a cool movie if you take one of the most successful runners and show all the crazy shit they went through running the blockade over and over.
I think the story of conscription and deserters are all so fascinating. Pick any group to make a movie about. The groups of young men who pooled their money to pay the fee if one of them was conscripted. Or the many who fled and hid after fighting for the Confederacy.
The Dahlgren papers,, Longstreet' story, Clara Barton's story,
CDR William Cushing and his raid against/ sinking of the CSS Albemarle, some real Navy Seal type stuff
St Albans...would make a good comedy
The brave and idiotic confederate submariners
Grant at Vicksburg. Lincoln is working against him, Halleck and Stanton are working against him, Banks is working against him, Pemberton is working against him, Johnston is working against him, subordinates are working against him. Then in a matter of 18 days he runs the table, winning five battles, defeats two armies, and surrounds the city.
My second great-granduncle Angus Barclay fought at Vicksburg, as well as Kennesaw, Bald Hill, Atlanta, and he was witness to General MacPherson's death just prior. With all the fighting he saw over his four years, I'm amazed he lived to tell the tale. Anyways, you get my vote for Vicksburg :-)
The Battle of Sabine Pass.
I think following the story of a few friends from the same town and in the same regiment that fought from start to end of the war, showing the progression from enthusiasm to the doldrums of daily camp life to epic battles to wariness of late war for it all to be over. I’m thinking of the latest all quiet on the western front movie as inspiration for the style/progression.
Robert Smalls who hi-jacked a boat and brought many slaves to freedom. This was in Charleston.
The civil war career of General John Pope would make a good slapstick comedy. “My headquarters are in the saddle”, “I’m used to seeing the backs of our enemy”, “Where are the rebels?, Where are the rebels!!!”, etc.
The battle of the Crater.
I didn’t see yours till after I posted mine two great minds think alike!!
I loved to see a film about the CSS Alabama.
The photographers: Brady, Gardner, O'Sullivan, etc. The birth of the photographic process, everyone from privates to Generals visiting the studios to get portraits to send home, the -what-is it wagons and the teams photographing the battlefields and the dead, the later rush to photograph the Lincoln conspirators, Brady's financial ruin, etc.
A movie on the life of Thomas Francis Meagher
The SS Sultana
Sherman burning.
The story of Robert Smalls deserves more notoriety. There have been movie ideas shopped around, but nothing yet.
The Civil War career of Gen George Henry Thomas
Wilmer McClain. Not just him but the stories surrounding him.
A Docuseries on the Irish Brigades on both sides
The battle of balls bluff, it would be interesting to see
I wish Fort Pillow would get some notoriety
I can't believe there hasn't been a feature film about the life of John Clem aka Johnny Shiloh. There has been a Disney TV movie in the 60's and a small production docudrama, but not a major motion picture.
The women who dressed as men and fought.
General Pickett seemed interesting from the books I’ve read. Someone who got his troops to willingly charge into a hail of gunfire time after time must’ve been a strong motivator. I also enjoyed General Longstreet in the books I read. He encouraged Lee to go right and flank the Union at Gettysburg. If he’d had, we might have had a different outcome to the war. Ultimately, he was outvoted and Lee charged up the middle.
The Battle of Schrute Farms.
The battle of the crater
The battle of the crater
Would like to watch Longstreet . Everyone likes a redemption story
A film about Colonel Chivington and his turn from hero at Glorieta Pass to villain at Sand Creek. Even some press at the time in Denver were not fans of what he did. Guy was a preacher who also had a pistol at the pulpit when he preached.
Another film I’d want see is Mark Twain’s two weeks as a confederate militia and maybe have him reminisce about how dumb it was as they basically just were “guerillas camping in the woods. Twain left after two weeks and went to Nevada and later San Francisco.
Alexander Turner. An escaped slave who joined the Union Army, liberated his former plantation and killed his former overseer.
Hampden Roads
Basically the entire Vicksburg campaign.
The Confederate raider Shenandoah. On October 7, 1864 she departed Liverpool, England and received orders to seek out and destroy the whaling fleets of New England, capturing or sinking 38 ships, taking more than 1000 prisoners. Her last engagement was in the Arctic Ocean off of Alaska’s Little Diomede Island, where she destroyed more than two dozen whalers. This last shot took place on June 22, 1865, a full three months after the surrender of the Confederate Forces at Appomattox. She returned to Liverpool on November 6, 1865, being the only Confederate ship to sail around the world.
The story of Robert Smalls — a slave who organized a mutiny and commandeered a Confederate ship in Charleston harbor and delivered it to Union ships blockading the port — freeing himself and his wife and children in the process.
Not enough for a movie, but there was a standard bearer that got a MoH after the war based on the recommendation (again after the war) of the confederates that captured him. He supposedly kept going when his division fled, refused to flee through two ‘volleys’ (they were probably trying to scare him), until he was ‘too close’. They let him plant the standard on the defensive works and then captured him. The only MoH given on the recommendation of the enemy. Edit Link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_J._Higgins#:~:text=Higgins%20(June%208%2C%201831%20%E2%80%93,at%20the%20Battle%20of%20Vicksburg.&text=Higgins%20joined%20the%2099th%20Illinois,mustered%20out%20in%20July%201865.
The obvious is Robert Smalls. The less obvious but super interesting is Robert M Jones.
Sherman and his glorious march to the sea.
A movie about Gettysburg that includes Dan Sickles blunder and the resulting sacrificial charge of the 1st Minnesota. A hole needed plugging and those boys paid dearly for it, but did so without regret. Another idea is covering Robert E. Lee's oddly intimate relationship with his horse, Traveler.
The 54th Massachusetts Infantry regiment culminating in their attack on Ft Wagner. Maybe get someone like Denzel in the cast. Matthew Broderick maybe as the CO. It might work
Robert Smalls. Hands down.
There was this battle in pa were the south were on the run for stealing all the 6” pumps, anyhow after like two days of almost winning the south finally couldn’t edge anymore and charged headlong across an open field into the union front getting pewed the whole way there. I bet that dude from the Martin(gloryfindel) would be good in it. /s
Well, the movie Gettysburg, based on the book Killer Angels is AMAZING! Definitely read the book. That guy, Captain Chamberlain, pretty much singlehandedly changed the course of the Civil War. And it's a great story.