When Will Smith's character is standing up for a boy who accidentally gives rotten food to a slave driver (Steven Ogg), the slave driver wants to shoot Peter (Will Smith's character), and Peter drops his hammer. After the slave driver is stopped by Jim Fassel (Ben Foster), Peter turns around and continues to work with his hammer.
The 1st Louisiana Native Guard's May 27, 1863, assault on Port Hudson did not succeed as portrayed in the film. The soldiers did not even make it into the Confederate trenches to engage enemy soldiers in hand-to-hand combat. Instead the regiment retreated after Andre Cailloux's death. Port Hudson did not surrender the morning after the assault as shown in the film. Instead the siege lasted until July 9, 1863.
Jim Fassel had been tracking Whipped Peter and the other slaves from the army camp to Baton Rouge where General Grants Army had just taken the city, earlier one of the slaves with Peter was caught and specifically told Fassel and the other slave catchers where Peter and the other two slaves were headed so it would not have been wise and very suicidal for anyone from the Confederacy to go anywhere near Baton Rouge where the Union had just taken over all to catch run away slaves..
When whipped Peter is sold to the Confederate Army for labor the Confederate Soldiers appear to be very blood thirsty and sadistic at the Army Camp shooting slaves at will decapitating there heads on poles etc in actuality this would have been a very idiotic thing to do to slaughter and kill the very labor that u need to work for u as cooks blacksmiths railway workers etc as manpower for the Confederacy was low and slaves were very much needed for work..
They for some unknown reason chose dog breeds that where not established until the 20th century. Probably just a result of incompetence as is shown at various times throughout.
This film is supposed to be based on "Whipped Peter" aka Gordon. The character in this film has an accent and states he was born in Haiti. Whipped Peter was actually born on the Lyons' farm in Louisiana.