Just watched this again. I enjoy reading events from the Civil War and my wife and I live right down the street from the old Bushong Farm. The site of this battle. Visiting is made even more real when you find a cadet from VMI working there as part of his schooling. The critics who are upset over the "glorifying" the Confederacy are complete rubbish. That is not what is done in this movie. The makers of this film wanted to show this event and the impact it had on the area and all involved. This included the cadets, slaves and residents as well as soldiers from both sides. Did the scene where the cadets fought hand to hand with older seasoned soldiers depict reality? Don't know as I was not there but my guess it is not overly accurate. Slavery was depicted as it should have been. Horrible. Cadet life was shown as young men who fought, laughed, teased each other and pretty much what we would expect actually happened. There are very few actors in here that I knew but I thought all did a great job in their roles. Watch the movie with eyes open and realize this was real life back then and this is not a glorification of the Confederacy. It's main job is to show the lives of the young cadets and they do a good job in this movie.