Captain Apthorpe

I wanna gush about this scene a bit for you guys and make a wider point. "Gettysburg," was mostly filmed using reenactors. I'm not sure if you've ever been around SCV reenactor types, but overwhelmingly as cringe as they might seem they are 100% True Believers. These guys live in and endure hardship many times a year to honor their bloodline. Martin Sheen originally was supposed to ride out and have a conversation with members of his staff. What happened instead was this. These reenactors hadn't seen Martin Sheen as Lee yet at that point. Multiple organizations were reached out to in order to fill roles for extras - most of them volunteered to work with no pay. This includes the Union guys too - but with all due respect to my GAR friends who defend our heritage, fuck 'em. You won the war. This post is for us. This was their first time seeing Sheen as Lee. The shooting of this movie sucked. Many of these guys committed to living, camping and fighting as the historic ANV did. This wasn't just some movie for them, it was a religious act: a preservation of the courage and honor of their forefathers. This scene was real; it was spontaneous. It was authentic to the feelings of reenactors. I don't know how to convey this scene to those who aren't Southerners, so I will say it in our terms: Lee was the ideal Southern Elder. Lee was and is in our minds our Southern Grandpa. He represents who and what we are at our bests. He led us like a king and loved us like a father. This is why melting down that monument matters to us. Lee is not an abstraction; he is a real person we all know and love. He is the archetype everyone tried to achieve. He represents us at our best. This is why Southern Nationalism matters: because it motivates people to this. Nobody else could ever do that. No one else would ever be considered worthy by Southerners - not now and not since.