Copperhead

Copperhead is director Ron Maxwell’s third Civil War drama, following Gettysburg and Gods & Generals. However, based on the 19th century novel by Harold Frederic, Copperhead is a different kind of Civil War movie—not about the battles fought on the front, but rather about the price the war exacted at home.

It’s a timeless and deeply moving examination of the price of dissent, following a man who dared to voice his disagreement, and the terrible price of war—a cost measured not in dollars but in broken families, broken lives, and men dead before their time.

The film, inspired by actual events, takes place in upstate New York, circa 1862. Dairy farmer Abner Beech (Billy Campbell) despises slavery—but just as passionately opposes the war that President Lincoln is waging, all in the name of “union,” hundreds of miles away. Abner is neither a Yankee nor a Rebel. He is what is known as a “Copperhead.”

A local anti-slavery zealot named Hagadorn (Angus Macfadyen) stirs up the town against him, with pamphlets and rumors that prompt shopkeepers to boycott Abner’s dairy products, and next by coaxing the community to shun his family.

Worse, Abner’s son falls in love with Hagadorn’s daughter—marching off to war to please her, but goes missing in action. Hagadorn’s wild-eyed rhetoric ignites a torch-bearing mob to descend upon Abner’s farm, placing all that both men love in mortal danger.