Diary of Orrin Brown, Dalton, Georgia
Thursday–Nov. 3rd
It rained all night more or less and it is still raining this morning, we were called on to guard a train to Atlanta, packed up in the rain, drew two days rations in the rain and left camp in the rain got aboard the train, 17 in our car and left Chattanooga at 10 AM. The trains run verry slow there was 5 trains and we were in the middle train we took the Noxville road run to Cleveland 30 miles, arrived at Cleveland at dusk, then took the Atlanta road and arrived at Dalton at 2 AM. We passed through a tunnel about 1/4 mile long.
And the journey resumes.
So much of our popular consciousness comes to us through media, especially the movies and television. Ken Burns’ The Civil War on PBS, marks a turning point in dramatization of the War Between the States. The 11-1/2 hour series in nine episodes received two Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, and more recognition. It also set a standard format to bring documentaries with life combining photographs, period soundtrack and narrative readings of original letters and documents.
I was never a big fan of Gone with the Wind, Little Women, or The Red Badge of Courage. Too melodramatic for my taste. I did like the cowboy movies, but didn’t really connect classics such as The Horse Soldiers and The Blue and the Gray or anti-classics like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and The Outlaw Josey Wales with realities of the War. They were more reflections of the time they were made in, than the time they were set in.
The movie Glory with Matthew Broderick and Denzel Washington made a big impact on me as a young man of draft age, as well as Kevin Costner’s Dances with Wolves. I was alerted to Jude Law’s Cold Mountain when it came out in 2003 due to the excellent soundtrack. Later, I discovered the movies Gettysburg and Gods and Generals on DVD, both based on books by Michael and Jeff Shaara. More recently, I waited to watch Daniel Day-Lewis’ Lincoln because I liked Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals so much I wasn’t confident they could turn it into a successful movie. They did, although there is faint resemblance, and I am grateful they didn’t ruin the book for the sake of drama.
And as a footnote, I really didn’t want to like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. But I did. It is a lot of fun.
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