The original working title of Gettysburg (1993) was "The Killer Angels" taken from the title of the book by Michael Shaara. Test audiences thought the movie was about motorcycle gangs and thus it was changed to its broader, current title.
The term "killer angel" did appear in the movie in the following quote:
Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain: [quoting Hamlet] "What a piece of work is man, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god."
Sergeant 'Buster' Kilrain: Well, man may be an angel. But he damn well must be a killer angel.
Colonel Chamberlain (Jeff Daniels) and his brother Thomas (C. Thomas Howell) were at Gettysburg along with their brother John who was a Doctor who had come down to visit his brothers. When Lee invaded Pennsylvania John stayed with the 20th Maine to help. He treated the wounded of the 20th Maine on Little Round Top as well as helping afterwards at various field hospitals. The line in the film "Split up, another close one like that and it could be a bad day for mother" was actually said by J L Chamberlain to his brothers John and Tom. A shell had exploded in the trees over their heads as they climbed up Little Round Top together giving them a rather close call.
Except for the featured cast, this movie featured over 13,000 volunteer civil war reenactors that paid their own way, provided their own props, and fought the battles presented on screen using the same tactics as were current at the time.
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Some folks may not know that Colonel Chamberlain received a field promotion to Brigadier General at the Battle of Petersburg and after the war became governor of Maine. He also spoke several languages and is likely a distant relative of the writer of this blog, Will Watson.
That would be so cool if he really was related. Wish we could find out for sure.
Chamberlain was responsible for one of the most poignant scenes of the Civil War at the April 1865 surrender of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House. Gen. Grant placed Chamberlain in charge of receiving the surrender of Confederate weapons and battle flags. As the conquered Confederate soldiers marched down the road to surrender their arms and colors, Chamberlain, without orders or permission, ordered his men to come to attention and "carry arms" as a show of respect. Chamberlain described what happened next:
The gallant John B. Gordon, at the head of the marching column, outdoes us in courtesy. He was riding with downcast eyes and more than pensive look; but at this clatter of arms he raises his eyes and instantly catching the significance, wheels his horse with that superb grace of which he is master, drops the point of his sword to his stirrup, gives a command, at which the great Confederate ensign following him is dipped and his decimated brigades, as they reach our right, respond to the 'carry'. All the while on our part not a sound of trumpet or drum, not a cheer, nor a word nor motion of man, but awful stillness as if it were the passing of the dead.
Chamberlain's salute was unpopular with many in the north, but he defended his action in his memoirs, The Passing of the Armies. Many years later, Gordon, in his own memoirs, called Chamberlain "one of the knightliest soldiers of the Federal Army."
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