American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

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Gen. Blake Strickler
Confederate General-in-Chief
El Presidente 2010 - 2012

Lol, this is great Blake!!

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General Scott Ludwig
4/II/ANV

I'm sure most of you probably figured it out after a minute or so.

AP Hill has been cropped out of the promotional picture by TNT. His role was cut from the film so I suppose that's why they did it. They did leave his name on the sheet which is odd. They could not crop out Venable Marshall though. He is in the middle of the photo but his role was also cut from the film. You can tell someone in the promotional department really didn't care all that much and was just told "cut out the guy on the end." Nobody double-checked the text though. Cable TV back in the 90s wasn't known for high-quality productions

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Gen. Blake Strickler
Confederate General-in-Chief
El Presidente 2010 - 2012

I'm not sure TV has been known for high quality productions in well....ever lol....I digress though. (A joke before anyone takes the comment too seriously!)

I did catch the Hill error right away.

Though it did take me until now to look over more closely and find the other rather interesting error.....um there's no Venable Marshall as a person!! There's Charles S. Venable and Charles Marshall, both intertwined as aides directly to Lee.

On both IMDB & Wiki the cast credits list Ruddy as Charles Marshall: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107007/fu ... t_ov_st_sm and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_(1993_film)

He is seen on screen at different times and in the clip below at about the 2:53 minute mark, Lee addresses him directly and Marshall has a spoken response.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Hpn-puqnKk

From all that I could tell, Charles S. Venable never makes an appearance or is a deep background person, uncredited.

Thomas J. Goree is in the middle of the photo and his actor does have speaking lines and is present in other parts of the film.

Now the Hill thing is interesting. He is seen in the Cashtown scene for the almost whole minute it goes for: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63PMGSknTxc

Odd that they chose to chop him out.

The second day morning conference though is always of interest to me. We clearly have known players in it. The guy standing next to Heth at the end of the table appears to be the same guy who plays Hill. Though is this supposed to be Hill or Lafayette McLaws??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG812fH9d2Y&t=32s

Now begs another question....is Charles S. Venable in this scene actually?? At about the 1:55 minute mark is the guy directly to the left of Lee, from our view as the audience, with the brownish kepi Venable??

All this said, my highest conclusion is, even for the 90's or in any time, that the person who drew up the ad & the editorial staff (if here was one) should've all been sacked!!

This concludes an hour long rabbit hole I just went down.

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General Scott Ludwig
4/II/ANV

There is James K. Marshall who commanded Pettigrew's Brigade after Pettigrew took over for Heth. That's who I assumed "Marshall" was.

In the Director's Cut of the movie there are added scenes with Ewell and others. But I can't recall if Hill has speaking lines. Hill played almost no part in the battle so not having him in the movie hardly matters.

It would have been nice to take the cast of the movie in 1993 and to have turned this into a 10-part miniseries as opposed to a 4-hour movie.

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Gen. Blake Strickler
Confederate General-in-Chief
El Presidente 2010 - 2012

Venable Marshall

Perhaps Ron Maxwell intended Venerable Marshall as a composite of Lee's aides Charles Marshall and Charles S. Venable.

In the video provided by General Ludwig he is referred to as Major Marshall (Tim Ruddy). The 2:53 mark in the clip is definitely Ruddy. I could not see Ruddy at the 1:55 mark but I did see him in the background (riding behind Lee with others) at 2:06-2:12.

The Wikipedia page on Charles Marshall references Tim Ruddy as portraying him (not Venable) in the Gettysburg movie.


A. P. Hill

In the Cashtown scene it is definitely Patrick Falci who appears on screen with the red shirt and briefly conversing with Lee. However, despite the red shirt, Falci is not appearing as A. P. Hill in that scene. I think he is supposed to be a member of the public who speaks with Lee to provide him some useful information.

The 'second day morning conference' is again Falci. This time he is in his role as Hill (no red shirt though which is odd). Hill did meet with Lee on that day (see page 112 - https://www.npshistory.com/series/symposia/gettysburg_seminars/16/essay5.pdf). It seems that only Heth, Hill, Longstreet and Lee were present although it is likely that aides were nearby and assisted in the meeting.

Falci was an historical advisor for the Gettysburg movie. He was probably chosen to appear as Hill due to his beard and Hill was a very minor character in the movie. Hill was Falci's first acting role and he was proud of it. More on Falci can be found here - https://patfalci.wordpress.com/

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Paul Swanson
Lieutenant-General
First Division
First Corps
Army of Northern Virginia

I still like the Ted Turner cameo in the movie. Always a fun easter egg.

If I was a powerful celebrity I'd probably put myself in all my movies (and all the others I could). Much like Hitchcock, all the movies would become a sort of "find Blake" contest.

Here is Hitchcock leaving a store in the movie "The Birds." Hey, when you are Hitchcock you can do anything you like

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Gen. Blake Strickler
Confederate General-in-Chief
El Presidente 2010 - 2012

Hahaha!! This is all true & great Blake!

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General Scott Ludwig
4/II/ANV

I had wondered that too Paul, but a quick search produced no results of that. More likely a mistake. Someone not familiar with the material might've kept seeing their names running together. One has to admit that Venable Marshal is a rather outstanding name!




The video is not the best, I admit, but it is him being Hill. Noted as well in the below, which is outside the Inn.

https://www.hmdb.org/Photos7/775/Photo7 ... 02455500PM

I will certainly check out Falci's page! Maybe one of us should ask him if he's Hill in that scene.

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General Scott Ludwig
4/II/ANV

I think that picture you provided answers the question. I'd say you're 100% correct that Falci is A. P. Hill in that scene in the movie.

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Paul Swanson
Lieutenant-General
First Division
First Corps
Army of Northern Virginia

I love the Hitchcock movies and have quite a few. It doesn't feel quite right until I've spotted him.
A long time ago I watched The Lodger (1927 silent film) and missed his appearance, losing the plot as I too busy searching for Hitchcock. The Lodger was a film he always wanted to remake but wasn't allowed (unlike others). Now I'm armed with a list of Hitchcock appearances (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cameo_appearances_by_Alfred_Hitchcock) and I see the film is free to view on YouTube I'll have to see it again. From memory it's a movie you have to pay attention to, or you'll lose the plot as I did before.

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Paul Swanson
Lieutenant-General
First Division
First Corps
Army of Northern Virginia

A lot of Hitchcock's films are like that. Never a dull moment.

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Gen. Blake Strickler
Confederate General-in-Chief
El Presidente 2010 - 2012