Summary
- The cast and crew of "Gettysburg" were fortunate enough to film on location at Gettysburg National Military Park, where the actual Battle of Gettysburg took place in 1863.
- Little Round Top and Devil's Den were two important locations within the park where pivotal scenes were filmed, accurately recreating significant events from the battle.
- While most of the movie was not shot at the national park, the production team found other nearby locations, such as the Yingling Farm and Cashtown Inn, to ensure authenticity and capture the essence of the historic battle.
Unlike many other historical war films, the cast and crew of Gettysburg got to film pivotal scenes on location at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. But the entirety of the movie was not shot on the grounds of the national park. The 1993 epic film is a four-hour depiction of the infamous Civil War battle and tells the story of soldiers on both sides of the fight — the Union Army of the Potomac and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. It is obviously based on real events during the Battle of Gettysburg from July 1 to 3, 1863. However, the movie is also an adaptation of the 1974 nonfiction book The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara.
The cast of Gettysburg includes several actors playing historical figures, including Martin Sheen as General Robert E. Lee, Tom Berenger as Lieutenant General James Longstreet, Stephen Lang as Major General George Pickett, Richard Jordan as Brigadier General Lewis Armistead, Jeff Daniels as Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, Sam Elliott as Brigadier General John Buford, C. Thomas Howell as Lieutenant Thomas Chamberlain, and many others. The ensemble cast and crew traveled to Pennsylvania, where the battle occurred in 1863, to film the movie, and luckily for them, they were allowed to shoot scenes in Gettysburg.
Gettysburg National Military Park, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
The National Park Service granted the producers of Gettysburg to film a handful of scenes on the grounds of where the actual Battle of Gettysburg took place in the Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania. It was the first time that the agency granted a motion picture project to shoot scenes in the park, seeing as their mission is to protect and preserve the fields, given the park's historical significance. Thankfully, the producers of the 1993 epic war film were able to jump through some hoops and guaranteed that Gettysburg would be as accurate as possible, and that included shooting scenes at the location where the story took place over 100 years ago.
Little Round Top, Gettysburg Battlefield, Pennsylvania
The Gettysburg National Military Park in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, is an expansive park that encapsulates over 6,000 acres. But despite its vastness, the Gettysburg cast and crew convinced the National Park Service to let them film scenes at an important location on the grounds — Little Round Top. Little Round Top is a small and rocky hill situated next to a larger hill called Big Round Top and located on the southern end of the park.
In the Battle of Gettysburg, Little Round Top was where the Confederate troops, ordered by General Robert E. Lee, launched an unsuccessful assault on the Union Army on July 2, 1863, the second day of the fight in Gettysburg. The location is sacred, and the National Park Service is dedicated to preserving it, but they gave the Gettysburg production team permission to shoot the deadly scenes that recreated the assault onscreen. So when fans are watching the epic war movie, they should know that the scenes that take place at Little Round Top within the context of the film were actually shot at the historic spot in Pennsylvania.
Devil's Den, Gettysburg Battlefield, Pennsylvania
The second significant location in Gettysburg National Military Park in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, that the Gettysburg cast and crew filmed at was the Devil's Den. The Devil's Den is another hill close to Little Round Top, but it is full of boulders and located south of Houck's Ridge on the Gettysburg Battlefield. It is the spot of another significant event on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863. Confederate soldiers overpowered the Union Army at the Devil's Den and took the boulder-strewn land for themselves. If viewers pay close attention while watching the 1993 epic war movie, they will be able to spot Devil's Den.
Yingling Farm, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Although the Gettysburg cast and crew were able to film on the actual grounds of the Gettysburg National Military Park in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, they didn't shoot a majority of the movie there. It is assumed that they were still restricted in how much could be done on the fields concerning the battlefield scenes, which featured gunfights and explosions. As a result, the production team scouted out different locations in surrounding areas in the Eastern state, and one of the places they settled on was Yingling Farm in Adams County, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, according to IMDb.
Yingling Farm is the bright red barn that can be seen throughout the 1993 epic war feature as the makeshift hospital for the Confederate Army. Viewers can first spot it when Major General John Bell Hood, played by Patrick Gorman, and Lieutenant General James Longstreet, played by Tom Berenger, meet when Hood is wounded and on a gurney in the barn. Hundreds of men lay hurt inside and outside the structure, making this location easy to spot while watching Gettysburg.
Since the cast and crew were limited to what they could and could not film at the Gettysburg National Military Park in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, they mostly used Adams County, where the Yingling Farm is located, to shoot scenes. The end credits of the film reveal that many scenes were shot on the Gettysburg Battlefield and in the surrounding area of Adams County, Pennsylvania. So, to ensure that Gettysburg was as authentic as possible, the production was limited to the land in which the battle occurred and its surrounding towns. As a result, Gettysburg is often lauded as one of the best war movies ever made.
Cashtown Inn, Pennsylvania
The final location used in Gettysburg was the Cashtown Inn in Orrtanna, Pennsylvania, which is very close to the town of Gettysburg. It is unclear which scenes in the 1993 epic military film were shot here, but it is listed as one of the filming locations on IMDb, and the history of the inn gives us a pretty big clue. The Cashtown Inn is a historical spot, having been built in 1797 as a stagecoach stop and later used as the headquarters for the Confederate Army during the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. So, the Gettysburg cast and crew utilized another significant location from history as a place to film scenes for the movie.
Source: IMDb
