I was digging through boxes the other day looking for some things I hadn’t seen in years. As I peeled off the old, cracked tape and looked inside one of the boxes, I noticed it contained photos from the past. Interested to see what they were, I pulled them out. On top there was an old album, and in it were all the photographs taken while I was an extra in the movie Gettysburg. I had forgotten I even saved any of this stuff and settled in to reminisce. It’s hard to believe the 30th anniversary of the movie first coming to theatres was last October!
Back in 1991, I remember hearing the rumors that an epic series based upon the novel The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara was in the works. In order to film something of this scale with a large number of soldiers, the producers reached out to the reenacting community. I, with a few other friends, sent in pictures of ourselves in both Union and Confederate uniforms and we were approved to participate. We decided with our work schedules we could only film for two weeks, and we chose the time (they would be filming the Pickett’s Charge scenes.
So, in the summer of 1992, I loaded up my car and headed to Gettysburg. The set was just off the battlefield (although the actual charge was going to be filmed on the battlefield). We pitched our half tents with rows of others and prepared for the next two weeks. It was important to us and the producers that we were as historically accurate as possible and knew the days of marching and charging ahead would be grueling work!
We were up before dawn every morning and would form up where they were filming and do what we were told to do (similar to actual Civil War military life). I remember it being hot as hell, and many people dropped from heat exhaustion (also similar to actual Civil War military life). There was a line of ambulances waiting on the sidelines to take care of those who fell (definitely not similar to actual Civil War military life). A director would yell “cut” and the medics would take the person away; then we’d go right back to marching and charging and filming again.
At the end of the day, we would head back to our massive tent camp, have dinner, and inevitably drink way too much (which didn’t help with hydration). One night while I was out for the count from exhaustion and imbibing in drink, I woke up to someone dragging me from my tent by my feet. The entire row of tents we were in was on fire, and luckily, they were there to pull me out! I don’t know who it was, but I woke up in the morning extremely hungover, lying in a street with smoldering tents behind me.
There are many other stories I could tell, but not enough space to share them all here. Suffice it to say, it was an experience I won’t ever forget, and I met some amazing people there from all over the country, some I am still friends with today. If you’ve never seen it, I encourage you to watch Gettysburg. It’s a great movie, and no, I’m not just saying that because I was in it!
