Tag Archives: news

More Casting News!

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Again from The AV Club’s Newswire, more casting news on the instantly-awesome-and-highly-anticipated Steven Spielberg Lincoln movie: Jared Harris will be playing U.S. Grant. I was a huge fan of Harris’ late father, Richard, and Jared did a fantastic job on Mad Men. I am curious to hear his American accent, though, because the closest he came on the TV show was this.

Luckily, he’s enough of a chameleon to pull of Ulys’ look. Check out this headshot! Slam on a shapeless felt hat and cram a cigar stub in his mouth, and he’s pretty close to the real thing.

Jared Harris to play Ulysses S. Grant

Jared Harris to play Ulysses S. Grant

First Glimpse of Daniel Day-Lincoln

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Some sneak peeks at the Spielberg Lincoln movie, courtesy of the Onion AV Club’s chief wag, Sean O’Neil:

Our patriotic hysteria over the British invasion of American history aside, we all pretty much agree that Daniel Day-Lewis is going to do a fine job as the star of Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, right? We’ll take it from the indistinct murmurs now echoing through the streets of the nation that yes, you’re on board and/or lapsing into dementia. But as further argument that Day-Lewis is taking his usual immersive, Method approach to the role, consider this tweet from Variety’s Jeff Sneider: “Word around town is that Daniel Day-Lewis hasn’t broken his Lincoln accent since March. His real name doesn’t even appear on the call sheet.”
Obviously there’s no elaboration on whether he’s also been eschewing electricity and loudly expressing his paranoid bafflement at modern plumbing at home, but if so, that probably sucks for his kids.

I was excited to hear Daniel Day-Lewis had been cast over Liam Neeson: They’re both good actors but DDL is one of those immersive types who gets under the skin of the characters he plays. If anyone could do justice to Honest Abe, it’d be him. I’m officially excited.

Daniel Day Lewis in Lincoln beard

Daniel Day Lewis in Lincoln beard

Sons of the GAR

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There are very few people alive today who can claim a direct link to the Civil War, but Grand Rapids found one:

“He’s only one of 20 men alive today who can claim their father fought for the Union,” says Butgereit, quoting from extensive research compiled by the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.

Becker’s father, Charles Conrad Becker, who was born in 1846, lied and said he was 19 (in truth, he was 17) when he enlisted with the North. He fought in the Battle Above the Clouds on Lookout Mountain in 1863 and a year later the Battle of Franklin — both in Tennessee. The bloody clashes totalled nearly 10,000 casualties.

Copper Theft

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There’s been another theft at the Lincoln tomb, though this time it’s just some boring copper sword instead of the President’s body.

Someone clipped the sword off one of the statues decorating the tomb. The fact that it took people a few weeks to notice is a good sign that this incident wasn’t worthy of a press conference, but some Republican State Rep took the opportunity to push a personal interest anyway:

State Rep. Mike Unes (R-East Peoria) said the passage of his legislation aimed to end the rash of copper theft can no longer wait after the issue reached a new height when a historical copper sword was stolen from a statue at Lincoln’s Tomb.

“It is despicable that this issue has now interrupted the resting place of one of our country’s most admirable presidents, Abraham Lincoln. It is a disgrace that copper theft is now affecting some our most historical sites,” said Unes.

Note lack of impetus to fix the economy, which is so bad people are resorting to copper theft to get by. Priorities, priorities…

http://www.eastpeoriatimescourier.com/features_carousel/x745434636/Unes-holds-press-conference-on-Lincoln-tomb-copper-theft

**EDIT** The Onion provides some man-on-the-street reactions.

Bill’s Book

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It seems Bill O’Reilly has co-authored a book on the Lincoln Assassination. After spending this summer reading James Swanson’s exhaustive (but not exhausting) Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer and other readings related to the exhausting (in the boring sense) movie, The Conspirator, I feel like my Assassination needs are met.  These needs were met by some quality sources, too, which O’Reilly’s book seems not to be.  Salon.com is giddily listing the experts who’ve taken issue with the factual errors, and the factual errors themselves. I am no O’Reilly fan, and some of the complaints are, frankly, nitpicky, but one in particular stands out as a prime example of inattention to detail:

Steers adds that one entire passage of the book about co-conspirator Mary Surratt is flat-out untrue:

The authors write that she was forced to wear a padded hood when not on trial, and that she was imprisoned in a cell aboard the monitor Montauk, which was “barely habitable.” She suffered from “claustrophobia and disfigurement caused by the hood,” and was “barely tended to by her captors.” “Sick and trapped in this filthy cell, Mary Surratt took on a haunted, bloated appearance.” None of this is true. Mary Surratt was never shackled or hooded at any time. She was never imprisoned aboard the Montauk, but taken to the Carroll Annex of the Old Capitol Prison before being transferred to the women’s section of the Federal Penitentiary at the Washington’s Arsenal.

I won’t be adding this one to my library.

http://www.salon.com/2011/11/12/second_expert_trashes_oreillys_lincoln_book/singleton/

Tweeting the War

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I thought I’d take a glance through Twitter, to see which Civil War personalities have been digitally reincarnated to offer pithy or funny feeds about the war.  Sadly, there don’t seem to be any Rebel Mayors in the bunch, but I did discover a Washington Post identity that collates a few interesting feeds.  They seem to be going in almanac fashion, with first-person quotes and period insights.

http://twitter.com/#!/CivilWarwp/tweeting-the-civil-war

Black Troops in the Confederacy

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NPR unearthed an interesting story on a very rare, newly-inducted United Daughter of the Confederacy.

Mattie Clyburn Rice, 88, spent years searching through archives to prove her father was a black Confederate. As she leafs through a notebook filled with official-looking papers, Rice stops to read a faded photocopy with details of her father’s military service.

“At Hilton Head while under fire of the enemy, he carried his master out of the field of fire on his shoulder, that he performed personal service for Robert E. Lee. That was his pension record,” Rice says.

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/07/138587202/after-years-of-research-confederate-daughter-arises