Question of the Week: What Civil War moment would you want video of?
If you could go back in time and record one 30-minute video from during the Civil War, what even would you want to video record?
If you could go back in time and record one 30-minute video from during the Civil War, what even would you want to video record?
Recording Lee coming downstairs at Arlington House and telling his wife that he had just resigned from the U.S. Army, capturing the scene and subsequent conversation about why, and Mary’s reaction.
Lincoln’s second inaugural address.
Pickett’s charge at Gettysburg.
Pickett’s Charge, from the opening cannon shots to just after Lee meets the returning George Pickett. Be sure to film with drones, too!
States conventions when the delegates write they are leaving the Union because of slavery.
I would record Jefferson Davis’s reaction and immediate activities as he receives the message from RE Lee that Union forces had broken through and could not be stopped from taking Richmond.
If that was not possible, then recording Lincoln as he strolled through Richmond after the Confederate evacuation.
I would like to record the charge upon the Mule Shoe at Spotsylvania.
Hancock’s deployments of his corps on the second day at Gettysburg.
Surrender at Appomattox
Lincoln’s meeting on the River Queen with Sherman, Grant and Porter.
Lincoln’s conversation with Grant, Sherman and Porter on the River Queen.
Meeting of Meade and his corps commanders at night of July 2nd at his headquarters at Lydia Leister’s house, with enought batterys to power the floodlights for filming.
The River Queen event with Lincoln, Grant, Sherman and Potter. The painting of this scene is one of my favorites.
Opydycke at the battle of Franklin.
Gettysburg Address, close up.
BG John Bell Hood attacking with two brigades at Cox’s Intersection, now Moser Road and Reno Monument Road, on September 14, 1862.
The meeting, the forlorn hope at Vicksburg. I’d like to know why he specifically asked for only single men to participate in the charge. I would also like a video of Grant and Longstreet’s reconciliation after Appomattox.
Correction: The meeting, probably a council of war, where Grant decided to go ahead with the forlorn hope at Vicksburg. I’d like to know from Grant himself why he decided to only recruit single men to participate in the attack.
What was said to Lincoln while standing at Fort Stephens.
The battle in the Wilderness, including the use of drones. I think the battlefield with all the mayhem, chaos, and carnage is truly impossible to appreciate and envision. Actual video would be shocking and perhaps still unbelievable.
I would like to see the charge at Second Bull Run where my ancestor gave the last full measure of de option.
The (successful) landing at Ft. Fisher.
As painful as it might seem, I would want to have video of the last minutes of my ancestor’s life before he was killed at Glendale, his close friend killed beside him, another friend wounded, all in the same moment, and what happened to his body and personal effects afterward, as this would solve the mystery of what grew to be one of the most fascinating incidents of the war. In my book I make a heavily researched and educated guess as to what happened, but of course we will never be fully certain. Due to the peripheral testimony of witnesses near him I feel I have solved the mystery, but one can never be sure.
Honorable mention: Video of the group Corps and Division commanders meetings with Robert Lee at Gettysburg, which would debunk once and for all the myth that a) Lee and Longstreet met alone on multiple occasions, which never happened; and b) that Longstreet proposed alternative plans to Lee, also which never happened.