We teach the Civil War badly.

The Civil War is an era full of deliberate misinformation, making accurate recounts of the period often hard to find. We have over one hundred years of historical analysis on the era, with dissertations from many historians seeing the vital moments in different lights. A prime example of the differences in our interpretations of the Civil War comes with comparing two of the most popular media pieces about the war, the historical novel, Killer Angels, penned by Michael Shaara, and the Edward Zick film Glory. Even though they cover the same era, they both portray entirely different ideals and showcase different interpretations of the war, which is necessary to recognize. Killer Angels is a novel about patriotism, while Glory is a film about equality. We must realize the Civil War for what it truly was, a bloody battle for the future of slavery and equality, not an honorable duel over states’ rights. Killer Angels pushes a revisionist viewpoint on the war, and it is vital that we see its flaws in comparison with Glory to truly understand the Civil War and its impact on America. Believing an incomplete representation of the Civil War puts the legacy of the entire war at stake and could have an outsized effect on our future, making the proper understanding of the correct turn of events a necessity.

Our books are obsolete.

Killer Angels is a historical novel about patriotism. Michael Shaara covers the war, the Battle of Gettysburg specifically, as a valiant battle between brothers. Through the characters’ eyes, we see every victory and defeat re-imagined in strong detail, making for an extremely compelling novel. We get to see into the minds of soldiers on both sides and can relish every victory by the Union. On the other hand, we also see wrong interpretations about the war, as the novel is chock full of tragic and constitutional revisionist ideals. In addition, we rarely see mention of slavery throughout the entire novel from both the Union and Confederate viewpoints. The entire novel about the Civil War contains one neglected African-American character that is an enigma to the Union soldiers, even though African-Americans’ enslavement is the impetus for the entire Civil War. Killer Angels completely glosses over the real cause of the war in favor of revisionist ideas, hurting its accuracy as a historical source.

Incorrect viewpoints are perpetuated.

When we see into the eyes of the confederate leaders from Killer Angels, we get a warped view of the Confederacy’s motives behind the war. When General Robert E. Lee gives his reason for leading the Confederacy, he says, “‘There was a higher duty to Virginia. That was the first duty. There was never any doubt about that.’”(145). This deceives the reader into the understanding that he is fighting as it is his duty as a Virginian, but in reality, he is fighting for slavery. General Lewis Armistead’s opinions are also steeped in falsehood. Consistently spouting about how the war is a Brothers’ war fought for states’ rights, he is the source of most of the incorrect interpretations featured in Killer Angels. On page 198, he makes a variety of crude remarks that are blatantly inaccurate. The primary offense being when he “said disgustedly, ‘They think we’re fighting to keep the slaves. [Fremantle] says that’s what most of Europe thinks the war is all about. Now, what we supposed to do about that?’”(198), framing the actual truth behind the war as an insulting falsehood. This enforces that the reason behind the war was states’ rights, which is an inaccurate revisionist viewpoint. His character is also the face of the Brothers’ war narrative. His constant remarks about how he used to fight for America with the opposing General Hancock, how he sent a parcel to Hancock’s wife in the event of his own death, and also when General Longstreet talks about how the North is “‘never quite the enemy’”, all reinforce the false notion that the war was fought between brothers. The war was fought between two culturally different countries and was not a tragic mistake like the Brothers’ war narrative pushes. Killer Angels pushes an outdated viewpoint on the reasoning behind the Civil War, and it needs to be recognized because it is crucial that the reader understands the truth. Much of our current society is built around the Civil War results, so it is imperative people know why the war happened.

This is what our media should be like.

Glory is a film about equality. Not about slavery, but equality. While the Civil War began over slavery, the soldiers in Glory fought for more; they fought for equality. During the Civil War, white people fought against slavery, but People of Color were fighting for equality. Glory does a magnificent job portraying this interpretation. The 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment was composed of free African Americans who fought because they wanted respect as people. They wanted to give their lives to prove that they were just as American as the whites. They fought because they wanted to feel safe on the streets and be equals to white men. A concrete example of this is when the Regiment does not accept less pay than normal. They are here to be equal to the other citizens and will not accept being treated differently. Glory shows us that the Civil War was not a war fought only for enslaved African American people; it was a war fought for the freedom and equality of all African Americans.

This is not something you can ignore, we feel its effects every day.

Killer Angels preaches an outdated and revisionist view of the Civil War, while Glory lectures about how the war was fundamentally about slavery. These distinctions are incredibly important. We review the Civil War to learn from it and better ourselves as people and a nation, and the most essential lessons hinge upon the conception of the war. If people are mistaken, say they think the war was fought between brothers or fought for states’ rights, they often miss the relevancy the Civil War has today. The importance of equality has been one of our nation’s pillars since the close of the Civil War, and people misled by revisionist history are unable to see that. America constantly campaigns for equality; that is part of why people are so proud to be American. The Civil War is one of our nation’s greatest examples of that, and to ignore that in favor of a different viewpoint is detrimental to our society and our rights. It is imperative that people understand how far we went to earn equality so that others understand the lengths we have to go to protect it. We sacrificed over one-hundred-thousand men for the sake of equality, and it is tantamount that they do not fall in vain. They fought for equality, and it is doing a disservice to them and their families to ascribe their lives to a different cause. The battle for equality is a constant battle, and American history, when correct, reflects that. While Civil War media like Killer Angels and Glory are for entertainment, we need to recognize that their portrayals of the war are not perfect. We need to learn from our past, not obscure it.

Parting words you should not forget

The differing interpretations of the Civil War by the two media pieces are large enough to completely shift a person’s viewpoint about America and the Civil War. Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara, is a novel full of revisionist history that presents warped and incorrect viewpoints about the war, making it extremely important that readers also watch a more correct interpretation of the war from a film like Glory, which captures that the true reason the war was fought is equality. Having a correct understanding of why the Civil War was fought is integral to understanding society today. With a correct understanding of the Civil War, a person can see the value of human rights and, therefore, the efforts we must make to protect them. We look to the past to understand the present and prepare for the future, making the past an indispensable source of wisdom. The past severely affects our decisions, making it vital to preserve its integrity by taking a close look at the media from which we learn.