Goofs

When Ada is turkey hunting and meets Inman, she fires the right-hand barrel of her double barrelled shot-gun to kill a turkey. Without reloading, she then fires the same barrel in an attempt to frighten Inman away.

When we first see Inman in the battle field, he is not wearing a coat, but later gets one from a soldier passing out boots and coats. Inman lays the jacket over his pack and sits. The next event of the enemy blowing up the trench from below, Inman comes out of the dirt with his jacket on.

When they first encounter the dead bull in the creek, the bull is lying diagonally with its front end out in the middle of the creek and its rump on or next to the bank. When Inman steps over the bull to begin sawing it, it is lying completely in the middle of the creek, parallel to the bank.

When Ada is leaving the cabin to go "look for some food", her hair is in two braids. When she comes back after shooting the turkey and finding Inman, her hair is in a ponytail.

When Ada arrives with her piano tied by ropes to the wagon, she stops by Sally Swanger's home and she is sitting directly up against the piano with little to no space between her back and the piano. In the next shot as she passes Inman plowing the field she is turned around playing the piano and there is now space enough for her legs (and dress) between her and the piano. Since the piano was tied to the wagon, it is unlikely that they untied the piano to move it backwards in order to make a space for her legs so she could face/play the piano.

Many of the Confederate/Southern characters in the film, such as Teague's men and Sara, use Spencer 1860 carbines. Although they are not anachronistic, it would have been highly unlikely that they could have possessed these carbines, as they were just being issued to Union cavalrymen and the South could not produce them.

Although it is possible for Teague's men to have captured them or been given captured weapons, it is still rather unlikely as they are merely militiamen, and would have had to use their own weapons, since the best ones were being given to the front line units. It is even more unlikely for Sara to have one as well, since she is only a civilian.

After the mine has been laid under the Confederate trenches, the Union soldiers are seen lying on the ground in their ranks waiting to charge after the mine goes off. In reality the Union troops waited in their trenches, since (1) there was no open ground where they could all have lain in formation, (2) they would have been hit by debris from the explosion, and (3) the Confederates would have seen them getting out and lying in wait.

In the opening battle scene, the famous Crater at Petersburg is depicted as much wider and deeper than it actually was.

The mine under the Petersburg defenses was set off well over an hour before dawn, at 4:44 am (about an hour later than planned), yet in the film it is full daylight when it goes off.

As Inman begins his journey from Richmond back to Cold Mountain, he first goes to the coast. This would be at least a hundred miles in the wrong direction.

At :26 when Inman and Ada enter the church to wrangle the dove, the bird retrieves a seed reward after hopping into Inman's hand.

When the Yankees are charging after exploding the breastworks at Petersburg, a soldier's obviously rubber bayonet can be seen flopping as he runs.

When Inman is walking by the lake, you can see his tracks from previous takes.

When Inman regains consciousness, chained to the other prisoners who are dead, the hand of the body next to him, which he moves from his neck, moves on its own after he places it on the ground.

At the end of the movie it is supposedly Easter time. There are vases of fresh flowers on their dinner table outside. Some of the flowers are lovely white and pink cosmos which are a mid- to late-summer flower and do not bloom in spring at Easter in the mid-Atlantic.

During the battle scene, it appears that some of the American flags being carried by the Union soldiers are the "50 star" type flags. The American flag with 50 stars was not used until at least 1960, after Hawaii was made a state.

Before the Civil War even begins (1861), Ada asks Inman if he "had a picture made ... a tintype." The word tintype did not come into use until 1864. Before the War, these pictures were known as ferrotypes or ambrotypes.

At the end of the scene outside of the church when the men are celebrating "we have a war," Teague tells the crowd that he is the Captain of the Home Guard for Avery County. However, Avery County was not established until 1911 - it was the last county created by North Carolina. The correct location for Cold Mountain is Haywood County, which did exist in 1861.

The musicians sing the song "Sittin' on Top of the World." which is from 1930.

When Inman encounters the escaped slaves with eggs, there is a green line of grass running down the middle of the road. This would not have existed in the days of horse and cart; the green strip only forms when the only vehicles on the road are gasoline-powered. In the 19th century horses would have trodden it down.

The congregation is singing loudly at the church service when news of secession comes. The congregation begins to drift outside, leaving just a few members seated in the pews; however the volume of the singing does not diminish.

Minute 18: While Inman is plowing he is alone in the field but when he stops the horse, someone's arm is clearly seen to hold the reins in front of the horse.

On the DVD version at least, When Ada plays her piano as she rides past Inman "plowing the top field", you can see a wrangler's hand at the edge of the screen bringing his plow horse to a halt.

An insert of a "crow" is shown, sitting on a fencepost. It's a grey-and-black Hooded Crow (Corvus corone corvix), common in Eastern Europe (where the film was shot), but unheard of in the southern US (where the story is set).

The Appalachian Mountains of the Eastern United States have no jagged peaks. The mountains shown are Romanian.

The Home Guard would have known they were tracking three deserters both trough three sets of tracks and later three sets of bedding.

Ada tells Inman she isn't smiling in her photograph because she can't hold a smile. In that century smiles in paintings or photos, barring context, were thought marks of rough origins or character (drunkards, the lewd, etc.), which much explains their rarity. Inman almost certainly would have thought Ada's picture perfectly normal and Ada almost certainly would have felt no need to explain it. That being said, by the Civil War photography had advanced to where a smile had to be held only a few seconds, if one could.

When Ruby and Ada are getting the horses ready to retrieve ruby's father's body... Nicole Kidman is visibly wearing running shoes.

When Inman and Sara kill the three Union soldiers they get their ammunition and horses, but instead of riding one of the horses Inman continues his journey on foot.