Gone With the Wind is a classic movie that has been loved by many Americans for generations. It is a love story set in the antebellum Old South that takes place during the Civil War and the Reconstruction Era. Although it is fiction, it paints an accurate picture of the life that Americans lived in the 1860’s as well as the events that took place. Several names of the characters are also the real name of who they are portraying. In the beginning of the movie we are introduced to Scarlett O’Hara, the oldest daughter of the owners of Tara. Tara is one of the finest plantations in Georgia. It has rolling fields of cotton, tobacco, cattle and horses. During this time frame the South was an agricultural based society and slaves played a major role in the lives of the wealthy southerners. Although it was a turbulent time in America as southern states are seeding from the Union over states’ rights and slavery the war has not yet reached Clayton County, Georgia. Life remains as it has always been for the Old South. Even though war has not reached the South yet, they are busy preparing for when it does. Counties are forming militias that consist of local men and their sons. They spend time practicing war maneuvers such as sharp shooting, which is not much different from the way they hunt. They have their own weapons and uniforms have been made that mimic the exact same design and color of the actual uniforms worn by the Confederates. At the Wilkes family’s
The South Carolina militia is called up and adopts guerrilla tactics, using elements of surprise and attack, to harry the British supply lines.. To combat the militia, Cornwallis who had previously berated Tavington for his callousness towards civilians and executing surrendering troops, - authorizes Tavington to pursue more brutal tactics in order to draw Ben out. Tavington tracks Ben's family to their refuge with Charlotte and
It can be said that the South began the Civil War from a winning position. They had declared their independence, formed their own country and government, and they needed only to keep what they already had. But this was a monumental task as the government was required to protect every inch of land within the Confederacy. As a new country, the Confederacy needed to demonstrate the ability to defend its own territory from external threat. Without this ability, the Confederacy could never receive the international recognition and support it needed to survive. Aside from this reason, the South also needed to protect the institution of slavery from outside interference. If the Northern armies took control of a particular Southern area, the Confederates felt that they would free all the slaves, thus destroying the entire structure of society and its economic value. Because of this, Jefferson Davis was forced to devise a flawed war strategy which attempted to preserve the entire Confederacy at the cost of concentrating his forces.
The tensions of the Civil War are very much still alive in the Southern United States one hundred and fifty years after the Confederacy surrendered to Union forces to end the war. While the tensions may have mitigated away from full-fledged war between North and South, there still remain tensions along racial and cultural lines well beyond the war. In Tony Horwitz’s Confederates in the Attic these long standing tensions left over from the war are delved into by Horwitz as he makes his way across the south to see how the old Confederacy is viewed in the modern world of the United States. What Horwitz found was a dualistic society differing views on the Confederacy and the events of the Civil War. Dualities left from the war in aspects such as racial tensions, the meaning of the Confederate flag even between North and South entirely. Those living in the South can be seen holding a resonating connection to the Civil War. It becomes clear in Confederates in the Attic the Civil War not only became the catalyst of such dualities in Southern society, but still further shape and perpetuate these dualities long after the Civil Wars conclusion.
By the outset of 1864, after three years of war, the Union had mobilized its resources for the ongoing struggle on a massive scale. The government had overseen the construction of new railroad lines and for the first time used standardized rail tracks that allowed the North to move men and materials with greater ease. The North’s economy had shifted to a wartime model. The Confederacy also mobilized, perhaps to a greater degree than the Union, its efforts to secure independence and maintain slavery. Yet the Confederacy experienced ever-greater hardships after years of war. Without the population of the North, it faced a shortage of manpower. The lack of industry, compared to the North, undercut the ability to sustain and wage war. Rampant inflation as well as food shortages in the South lowered morale.
The creative and unique style which Wells chooses facilitate the reader in capturing the true message without wasting time with character descriptions. Through the series of letters written to other characters the reader gets a third person voice from the author, but with a first person view from the character. This is fascinating to the reader because it allows the reader to understand and each character individually. The reader is able to see traits that might not be revealed by the book. Wells lets us into a few of the quirks in the characters' personalities through a sequence of letters. The Ya-Ya's are all off to see the opening of "Gone With the Wind" in Atlanta, during the time period this is a big event. Vivi writes and tells the reader one of her secrets which helps us to look at her on the inside, "My secret dream is to meet Margaret Mitchell. Don't tell anybody but it is my secret plan to get her
The short book Victims by Phillip Shaw Paludan highlights the killings of fifteen individuals during the Civil War in a remote Appalachian area in North Carolina. This area, called Shelton Laurel, was home to many families and most of them were poor. What Paludan writes is how the Civil War gave way for revenge. Because of the location of Shelton Laurel, the Confederates often tried to take control of the area and recruit many people for their war efforts. Unionist also wanted recruits from this area as well.
During the novel, the armies are going to war against their opponents and not necessarily their enemies.Despite the fact that the Confederate and Union armies were entirely concerned with defeating their opponent, many times they were fighting against relatives and friends. For instance, General
The South was way outclassed industrially (Donald, 1996, pp. 70-74). There was probably never any chance her winning without European recognition and military aid (Donald, 1996, p. 74); Jefferson Davis, realized at the time, that there was never any real hope of Europe intervening. It just never was in England or France's best interests to get involved in a North American war. Industrially, the South could not keep up in output and in manpower (Donald, 1996, pp. 7-16). By the end of the war, the South had, more or less, plenty of weaponry still, but it just did not have enough men to sustain the use of the guns (Donald, 1996, pp. 18-19).
The Union military and naval effort to capture Charleston failed in 1863, So did the assault on Fort Wagner led by the 54th which most of them died in the attack. On may 1863 the 54 completed their training and marched through boston to embark for the front. The 54th was not the first black regiment organized or the first to see combat. The War Department quietly allowed the Union commanders occupy portions of the lower Mississippi valley and other places to begin organizing black regiments in the fall of 1862. Four of the regiments fought in battle with the vicksburg campaign during May and June 1863, but these events had received a little publicity in the Northern press. The White officers of the 54th represented of New Charges gland society like shaw were the combat veterans of white regiments during the first two years of the war. Glory does not go into detail about the impact the battle of Fort Wagner had on the Northern like it does not mention the draft
1. The war in 1862 was only more than a year old and the people in both the Union and Confederate sides didn’t anticipate it would last that long, but it is going to go on. Close to the end of the summer in this same year, the Union has made huge progress in claiming confederate lands, winning some major battles. They have put the confederacy in the defensive. They have taken over New Orleans, with even black troops major on the ground of New Orleans. They have taken Missouri and are working hard to take over the Mississippi Valley and maybe even Richmond itself. Bruce Catton puts it this way in The Civil War, “Except for guerrilla activity, Kentucky and Missouri has been swept clear of armed confederates, Western Tennessee had been reclaimed, there was a Yankee army in Cumberland Gap, another one was approaching chattanooga, and a third was sprawled out from Memphis to Corinth, preparing to splice down through Mississippi and touch hands with the Union occupation forces in Baton Rouge and New Orleans” (85) So not only that they Union had taken over regions, they are advancing as well, but they did not win the way this year for some reason. Firstly, because they did not have generals and army heads capable of taking them to victory. General Halleck, chief of the Union Armies and Pope in charge of one of the Union armies in Virginia, were major examples of this.
The American Civil War was a military conflict between the United States of America (the Union), and 11 secessionist Southern states, organized as the Confederate States of America (the Confederacy). It was the culmination of four decades of intense sectional conflict and it reflected deep-seated economic, social, and political differences between the North and the South. Many books have been written on this “first modern war” describing how over 620,000 men were killed. Jeff Shaara goes deeper and explores the personal conflicts of four historical figures, two from the South and two from North: General Lee, General Jackson, Colonel Chamberlain, and Hancock.
The Civil War of America has been discussed as the first modern war of the new industrial age. Army’s of such a large size had yet to meet head on, face to face in the battle field with weapons of such mass destruction and deadly force. America had not yet seen casualties of this magnitude to
change how people saw the "Old South". This movie quickly became a smash hit and went on to become the #1 movie of all time and still holds the title, as we were reminded of at the Oscars last year. The movie was "Gone with the Wind". It was directed by Victor Fleming, and based off of the book written by Margaret Mitchell. This movie was made to portray one of the most difficult times in American History, and it shows the struggle America went through during the
The movie “Gone with the Wind” is about a rich southern girl named Scarlett O’Hara and her life hardships set during the time-period of the Civil War. In the story, Scarlett is forced to watch helplessly as her family’s wealth and lives fade as the confederacy loses the Civil War. Even though, the movie is mainly centered on the dilemmas of Scarlett’s love life, there are many historical accuracies that immerse the viewer in the southern mindset as well as the timeframe. The portrayal of class structures and the confederate attitudes before the Civil War are both accurate and engaging details that the movie successfully implements. In the film, these examples are displayed mainly through the dialogue and setting.
The Civil War: Since Margaret Mitchell wanted to write as historically accurate as possible, I am going to draw in some factors from the real Civil War. Nevertheless, one has to say that Gone with the Wind has many historical inaccuracies. Both the film and novel are romanticising the Old South and the happy complacency of slaves, and the film chose to draw away even further from the realism that Mitchell had in the book. The film is set during the Civil War when the United States were trying to figure out what kind of nation it would become.