SWAYR takes place in 1876 following Custer's defeat at the Little Big Horn. At the beginning of the movie the narrator refers to the news about Little Big Horn spreading by Pony Express. Since the Pony Express was running only in 1860 and l861 and was effectively out of business after the completion of the transcontinental telegraph in 1861, there is an unusual historical screw up here. I am very surprised at John Ford who was a stickler for authenticity.
shareAlso towards the end of the film, Brittles reads out his new orders and one of the signatures as that of "Ulysses Simpson Grant" President of the USA. In fact his Mother's maiden name was Simpson but the S in his name was just an initial added in error during his West Point days and did not stand for anything. His full name was Hiram Ulysses Grant but he refered to himself at West Point as Ulysses Hiram Grant to avoid the HUG intials.
shareTen years later they did it again...in "The Horse Soldiers"
I left my love, my love I left a sleepin' in her bed.
I turned my back on my true love when fightin' Johnny Reb.
I left my love a letter in the hollar of a tree.
I told her she would find me, in the US Cavalry.
Hi-Yo! Down they go, there's so such word as can't.
We're riding down to hell and back for Ulysses Simpson Grant.
Hi-Yo! Down they go, there's so such word as can't.
We're riding down to hell and back for Ulysses Simpson Grant.
I left my love, my love I left a sleepin' in her bed.
I turned my back on my true love when fightin' Johnny Reb.
I left my love a letter in the hollar of a tree.
I told her she would find me, in the US Cavalry, in the US Cavalry.
Hi-Yo! Down they go, there's so such word as can't.
We're riding down to hell and back for Ulysses Simpson Grant.
"At the age of 17, Grant entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, after securing a nomination through his U.S. Congressman, Thomas L. Hamer. Hamer erroneously nominated him as "Ulysses S. Grant of Ohio," knowing Grant's mother's maiden name was Simpson and forgetting that Grant was referred to in his youth as "H. Ulysses Grant" or "Lyss." "
Also Check:
http://www.geocities.com/presfacts/grant.html
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0760603.html
Ulysses S. Grant adopted that as the formal version of his name while a cadet at the USMA and stuck with it the rest of his. He hated his first name of Hiram and never used it, going by Ulysses or Ule among his friends and family. It did not bother him that they reinvented his name.
However, he never used "Simpson" as any part of his name.
According to H. W. Brands in his biography of Ulysses Grant, "The Man Who Saved the Union," Hiram Ulysses Grant never liked his first name and usually went by Ulysses or 'Ulys' while he was growing up. I have had friends who felt likewise about names much less cumbersome than 'Hiram.' Ulysses's father garnered young Grant an appointment to the US Military Academy at West Point through Congressman Thomas Hamer who new the young man only by his middle and last names. He placed Ulys on the roles for was entered on the roles at West Point as Ulysses S. Grant. Professor Brands speculates that Congressman Hamer assumed his middle initial was S based on his mother's maiden name of Simpson.
Cadet Grant signed his name U. H. Grant until army usage prevailed on him and he changed to U. S. Grant.
The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.
Ford was not a stickler for authenticity. Compare My Darling Clementine to the actual life of Wyatt Earp.
Or look at the weaponry and costuming of The Searchers, which takes place right after the Civil War (Laurie's pants even have a little red Levi's tag!).
Don't even get me started on The Horse Soldiers!
A great director? Definitely. A historian? Definitely not!
I like pie.
Actually, Ford was right on the money. The "official" Pony Express was an 18 month venture in 1860-61 and was, as noted above, defunct by 1876. BUT, many small express rider companies sprang up in various locations, in response to local need. If a frontier community was far enough off the beaten path that stagecoach and mail service had not yet reached it, local entrepeneurs would start an express rider business to carry the mail. These informal companies were usually referred to as the "Pony Express", even though they had no legal right to be so called. Wild Bill Hickok's friend Charley Utter was busy trying to start a "pony express" company to serve Deadwood, D.T. in 1876, and was out of town on this business when Hickok was shot and killed by Jack McCall. So John Ford was quite accurate in calling the depicted express riders "Pony Express riders", as this was the custom of the time. As I saw no reference to Russell, Majors and Waddell (founders of the 1860's Pony Express)in the film, I conclude that the pony express referred to in the film was a small, local company.
shareJust because the mail is being delivered on horseback, doesn't mean it's the official "Pony Express". And just because a "movie" is filmed in southern Utah, doesn't mean it takes place there. Note to robschmidt: all movies filmed in Hollywood, don't actually take place there.
shareJust because that facial tissue is made by another company, we still call is a Kleenex. So saying it came by Pony Express might have been inaccurate, but I don't think it rises to the level of a "screw up." We all know what was meant.
shareFord did whatever he felt like, historically accurate or not. Most of the music in Rio Grande was written after the time period. He knew it, but didn't care. Having the Sons of the Pioneers singing in that film, he expoited it, even having an Irish song from the beginning of the 20th century.
shareI thought there could be a similar explanation in the fictional universe of She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, but I hadn't heard of real mail riders calling themselves pony express men -- sort of like Xerox or Kleenix, I guess.
I could mention that in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon the dress uniforms resembled the Civil War pattern with the short jackets and the shoulder scales, while about 1873, three years before the movie, new dress uniforms were decreed with longer jackets and spiked helmets inspired by the Prussians who had just won several wars.
But of course the main historical inaccuracies are minor details like there never was a Captain Nathan Brittles and there never was a Fort Starke for him to be stationed at, or that the garrison of Fort Apache never rode to their deaths in Thursday's Canyon where Cochise never was assisted by the Kiowa chief Satanta and by Alchise, who actually was awarded a Medal of Honor in 1874 for service as a sergeant of Indian Scouts.
Sergeant Major O'Rourke is not in any list of real Medal of Honor winners, but one of the hostile leaders in Fort Apache actually is!
When the Army adopts a new uniform, there is always a "wear out" period for the old pattern uniforms already in the soldiers possession. Also, the new uniforms would not be issued until existing stocks of the old pattern uniform are expended, So the older uniforms don't just get thrown away, they get used up. In a frontier setting like Ft. Starke, it would no doubt be a long time before the new uniforms would be seen, so the older pattern dress uniforms depicted in this film are not an anachronism at all.
"It ain't dying I'm talking about, it's LIVING!"
Captain Augustus McCrae
Another historical screw up was Captain Brittle' retirement and Sgt. Quincann's pending retirement since they were retiring shortly after the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
It wasn't until June 1882, that Congress finally passed a retirement pension system for Army officers, but you had to be 64 years old and/or put in 40 years of military service before you could collect your pension. Source of information The Old Army by Edward Coffman.
With regards to First Sgt. Quincannon's pending retirement, it wasn't until February 1885 that Congress passed a retirement pension system for enlisted personnel and NCOs but you had to put in 30 years of military service before you could collect. Source of information The Old Army by Edward Coffman.
Until Congress passed both those retirement systems, the only way enlisted men, NCOs, and officers could get a pension was if they had fought in any of America's 18th and 19th centuries wars with the exception of the Spanish American War (Mexican War, War Of 1812, various Indian Wars before and after the Civil War, or the Civil War itself)and had been physically disabled in those wars. Until then, officers, NCOs, and enlisted men serve in the US Army until they had died or were incapable of serving due to old age or render physically incapable due to the harsh working and living conditions of military service.
In the case of Captain Brittle and First Sgt. Quincannon, they would have gotten nothing for their services except being lucky enough to get a place in the Old Soldier's Home which was established after the Mexican American War.
PLUS!! Another HUGE mistake was how the movie was filmed with modern day (circa 1940's)motion picture cameras and equipment!! They most certainly did NOT have those back then or we would have film of all the great Civil War battles, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, Lee's surrender at Appomattox, the Battle of the Little Big Horn.... p.s.>> :)
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