The Battle Of Little Sayler’s Creek DVD Review

“It’s like getting into a time machine and going back to April 6, 1865, and going into history,” states Wendy-Lee Oliver about the Little Sayler’s Creek yearly war re-enactments in the 2006 Paradox documentary, The Battle Of Little Sayler’s Creek.  This superbly shot, edited and constructed film (with kudos to David George, who also composed music for it, The Little Saylor’s Creek Theme And Variations, and Lisa Arden, who added help and additional camera work) tells us that children are taught history here, in life-like form (sometimes correcting their history teachers at school!) and that the Little Sayler’s Creek Preservation Society (of which Wendy-Lee Oliver is president) kept this battlefield from being taken over by property developers.

The Little Sayler’s Creek battle (five miles away from Appomattox where General Lee surrendered three days later) is important because if he hadn’t lost a third of his men there he may have been able to join Johnson in North Carolina and the outcome of the Civil War may have been entirely different.  (Soldiers who had nothing, no food for days and no shoes, cried and begged General Lee not to surrender!)  Confederate re-enactors say that the war was not about slavery but about civil rights where even the states’ rights to vote were being taken away, and Virginia residents (where this re-enactment is held each year) were afraid of the Federals taking over.  The Hillsman House, which marks one side of the battle alongside the Creek, had the lady of the house (according to Wendy-Lee Oliver) bringing ashcakes and hoecakes to the starving soldiers as they walked by.  Her house was also used as a hospital, with amputated limbs being thrown out of the side window!

Because of the fierce allegiances shown on both Union and Confederate sides, watching this documentary makes you feel as if you’re actually talking to these soldiers and ladies in corsets and hoop skirts.  The Confederate Army “fresh fish” – new initiates – rubbed black cartridge powder on their faces to show the others who they were.  James Mills tells us about what it was like to be a surgeon – men became infected from vapors that came from the ground as they slept on it, and the doctors bled them with leeches or gave them mercury pills, and when the infection cleared up naturally in about a week or so, the doctors took credit for the cure!  Strange metal tools were used to help amputate limbs or take small cannonballs out of body parts.  New York, Canadian, and all sorts of accents are heard from the Union camp since many Southerners refuse to play their roles. Marshall Shoffner plays an immigrant refugee soldier from the German Revolution who tried to turn some into Communists, and Sean O’Day plays an Irish immigrant soldier (485,000 Irish served in the Union camp and 480,000 served in the Confederate, so they were killing each other off as they remembered their struggles in their homeland!).

Women dressed as men went into battle and sometimes it was not discovered that they were women until their bodies were lain to rest and buried (332 women were documented).  Winnie Hillsman, who plays this type of character wearing a mustache,  tells about her ancestor Captain Willie Hillsman (who owned the house on one side of the battle), a Confederate who was captured and held in prisoner camps and used as a human shield and who finally walked home on foot to Little Sayler’s Creek from Delaware.  Horses were also a big factor in the battles, with soldiers feeding their horses before they fed themselves (the horses could be shot out from under them), and special saddles were made for the comfort of the horse and sometimes not taken off their backs for weeks at a time!

According to soldier’s accounts in this documentary, Lincoln freed the slaves only in the North (through the Emancipation Declaration) in order to make certain that England and France would not join the Confederates in the war.  There were 80,000 colored people in the troops, some drafted or conscripted, some volunteers, and some slaves, on the Confederate side.

There are Southern war re-enactment afficianados who have been participating for over ten  years who will play Union soldiers, saying, “We’re all living historians, so it doesn’t matter what rank or part you play.”  Photos from the Library Of Congress complement the film, as do Reverend Brad Up on guitar,  Pvt. Mark James on mandolin, and Mike Fox on the banjo.  This is a great historical film for children who aren’t interested only in being entertained but who want to learn (shots of a father and young son are shown in a bonus Slideshow, and what a remarkable experience it must have been for the son!).

Anyone who’s interested in this period in history or even those who want to learn more, would just love this extremely well-executed documentary!  There is so much information in it that it can be played over and over again, with more being gained with each showing!

MPAA Rating: NR
Running Time: 60 Minutes

Grade: A

Director: David George
Starring: Wendy-Lee Oliver and members of the Battle Of Little Sayler’s Creek War Re-enactment Society

DVD Review by Christina of Movie Room Reviews

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