"Buster" Kilrain - real or fictional?

[Fritz1255]

He is one of the more interesting characters in the "Gettysburg" movie and "The Killer Angels", but I have never seen reference to him anywhere else. I have books which pertain to the 20th Maine, including Truelock's book, another called simply "The 20th Maine" (Pullen), and another called "The Passing of the Armies" (I think written by Chamberlain himself), but no mention of this person. His story seems to be a little too "pat" to be real, but I don't know. Does anyone know if he was a real person? If he was indeed real, are the details fictionalized?

[johan_steele]

Check the Roster of the 20th MN... IIRC in the Movie he was the Regimental Sgt Major.

Probably fictionalized.

[hoosier]

Buster Kilrain was fictional. There was no one by that name in the 20th Maine. Those who go to Gettysburg and look for a grave marked "Kilrain" in the Maine section of the National Cemetery will look in vain.

The fictional Kilrain may possibly have been based on a composite of real-life characters, but if so, I don't know who they were.

[Fritz1255]

What is odd is that during the intro to the movie "Gettysburg", when they are comparing pictures of actors to what the real people looked like (Jeff Daniels/Chamberlain, Martin Sheen/Lee, etc.), they have a picture of a Civil War soldier next to Kevin Conway's picture. I had assumed this meant that he was portraying a real person, but the evidence says no. 20th Maine roster is not posted anywhere on the internet that I am aware of, although supposedly available in a book about Maine in the Civil War.

[tomh]

Buster was a composite character and his lines in the book/movie were actually compiled from letters and documents written by several soldiers. He turned out to be one of the most memorable characters in the book/movie and people are constantly asking the battlefield guides where he was wounded, where he died, where his marker is in the cemetery, etc. Fictional or not, he has brought people to the park and that is a good thing in my opinion.

I believe that the only "real" soldiers in the portrayal of the 20th Maine were the Chamberlain brothers and Ellis Spear.

Just a humble opinion,
TomH

[Nelly28]

Supposedly, Buster Kilrain was the only fictional main character in Gettysburg (I'm not sure about Gods and Generals). I've also heard that his name came from the title The Killer Angels. Whether any of that is true, I'm not sure. I would also be interested to know who that soldier was whose picture was compared to Kevin Conway's picture during the opening credits of the movie.

[Nelly28]

Many regimental rosters can now be found on the Internet in the Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System:

http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/index.html

A roster for the 20th Maine can be found there, as well as the rank of each soldier and the company to which he belonged.

[chuck71]

Buster Kilrain was a fictional character based upon a person named George
Washington Buck, a sargeant in the 20th Maine who was demoted to private
for a petty situation involving a captain. During the defense of LRT, he was
mortally wounded. As he lay dying, Chamberlain promoted him back to his
original sargeant rate. The terms "buck private" and "buck sargeant" remain
to this day.

[hikimenwaza]

My teacher said that Kilrain was a real person but was demoted (before Gettysburg) because he had a problem with alcohol.

[max]

In the Gettysburg movie did the scolding that General Lee gave General Stuart upon his return to the AONV ever really take place?

Max