Buchanan Theater will show the new documentary about Union Gen. David Hunter’s raid through the Valley of Virginia and Lynchburg Friday and Saturday, July 23 and 24.
The 45-minute film is titled “Hunter’s Raid—Battle for Lynchburg.” It premiered this spring in Lynchburg.
The Town Buchanan became a player in Hunter’s Raid in the late spring of 1864. The town’s annual Civil War History Weekend focuses on its part in the campaign, and the town’s four Virginia Civil War Trail sites are dedicated to the raid.
Greg Starbuck directed the film. He is executive director of Lynchburg’s Historic Sandusky Foundation, which owns the Sandusky House.
The film took five years to complete and was shot in areas near and in Lynchburg.
According to reports about the documentary, the film focuses on about 25 characters that include Union and Confederate soldiers, doctors, civilians and reporters who were embedded with troops during the raid.
The film was funded by donations.
In 1864, Hunter led his troops south through the Shenandoah Valley from Staunton to Lexington and Buchanan before crossing the Blue Ridge Mountains headed for Lynchburg where the Union forces hoped to lay waste to the railroad supply center there.
Confederate Gen. Jubal Early’s troops defeated the Union army at the Battle for Lynchburg, and drove them west to Bedford, through Blue Ridge and on to Hanging Rock near Salem.
The Historic Sandusky Foundation’s mission is to preserve and interpret the Sandusky site as a public museum in Lynchburg and to collect, preserve and disseminate information about the history of Sandusky, its inhabitants, and the role of Lynchburg in the Civil War.
The film starts at 7:30 p.m. both nights at the Buchanan Theater. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children under 12.