Gettysburg (1993) - 24 mistakes

Revealing: A jet con trail can be seen just before the fight at Little Round Top, when Chamberlain and Tom are talking.

Continuity: After Chamberlain's bayonette charge, he sees his aide wounded for a second time. The scene changes angles back and forth during their talking of how brave the boys were. An American flag is over the shoulder of the aide on close ups, but on a longer shot the flag is leaning against the tree.

Continuity: Just before Pickett's charge, there are a number of shots of drummer boys playing the drums. Their drums have plastic drum heads with the "Remo" brand name on them.

Factual error: During the engagement of the 20th Maine in defense of Little Round Top there is a tremendous amount of firing going on as they repel charge after charge of Confederates. Yet, there is not a single leaf, or tree branch, that falls to the ground. With that amount of lead flying around there would have been debris everywhere. There are actual Civil War accounts where whole trees were cut in half by bullet fire.

Revealing: In one of Pickett's charge scene the bayonets are obviously rubber.

Continuity: On the first day of the battle when Longstreet and Lee are talking, Longstreet's cigar is unraveling and in the next shot he has a new cigar.

Factual error: In the Civil War cannon shells that exploded on impact were not used. The cannon shells at Gettysburg had timed fuses so that the shells would explode in the air casting shrapnel downward to cause casualties. If a shell landed before exploding, it would just bury itself in the ground and scatter dirt harmlessly when exploding. In the movie, the cannon shots all explode when hitting the ground, not in the air, and are obviously preset charges. By the way, this is why the Confederates overshot the Union forces at Gettysburg. Their main supplier had burned down just prior to the battle and they were forced to use fuses from another source. The Confederates did not yet realize that these fuses burned slower than their previous ones so the shell would travel further before exploding.

Factual error: In several scenes where the cannons are firing, they either don't recoil or recoil very little. In real life, they would have a bigger recoil.

Revealing: In the scene where Chamberlain is walking with his brother just after Little Round Top and before they get to the safe part of the battlefield, there is a jet con trail in the sky.

Continuity: When the battle is happening at the end, the number of soldiers bodies after they have been killed varies from shot to shot. It shows them falling and dying in some shots, but the bodies are gone in later shots.

Continuity: During the sequence at Little Round Top, the same footage is used twice. The 20th Maine soldiers discharge a volley of musketry and there is a shot of a Confederate soldier being bodily flung backwards. A short time later, the Union defenders send down another volley and we see a close-up of another Confederate falling. Only it's the same actor, same footage.

Revealing: There are white wristwatch marks on the tan arms of the Confederate soldiers as they reach for Lee as he rides among the troops.

Factual error: When General Buford looks back toward Gettysburg from the cupola of the Lutheran Seminary building to see if the First Corps is approaching, the director used a colorized photograph of the town taken by Matthew Brady a few weeks after the battle to illustrate Buford's view. Unfortunately, the photo was taken from a point north of the Chambersburg Pike and the Lutheran Seminary is south of it.

Continuity: At the beginning of the movie when the scout is talking with Longstreet, when the scout holds up his finger and says "you didn't know they were on the move out there", a long stream of troops is seen marching to the right. When the shot cuts to Longstreet then back, they have disappeared.

Factual error: There are several scenes which show an American flag with way too many stars for that time period.

Revealing: In the battle of Little Round Top, as the Confederate soldiers are backing down the hill there is one man walking backwards and loading his gun. Behind him another soldier aims his weapon and fires, shooting the first man in the side of the head. The man then ducks and waits for the smoke from the shot to clear and continues down hill.

Continuity: When Buster gets hit in the arm the first time, he is busy tying the kerchief below the wound.

Other: When Buford's cavalry is first riding into Gettysburg, he brings his men alongside a fence. On the other side of the fence, there is a trail with tire tracks from a car or truck. They can't be from wagon wheels because they are about a foot thick each too well formed.

Other: There is one shot where the camera shows the battlefield with a large tree in the middle of it. You can see that the tree has been cut away to make room for a power line, which has been removed for the movie.

Continuity: In the opening, the spy is watching Union troops at dawn. He rides to Longstreet's headquarters and gets there in broad daylight. They then ride to Lee's headquarters and when they get there it is dawn again. Two sunrises in one day...