The Ottawa Historical & Scouting Heritage Museum will be holding nightly showings of “Forgotten Valor: The Life and Death of W.H.L. Wallace” at 6pm from November 15th to the 20th. Tickets are $10 per seat, cash at the door. Learn more on the museum website.

Recently, we had the opportunity to speak with the director and videographer of the documentary, Dan Hennenfent and George “Skip” Hupp. The pair were first approached last year by Mollie Perrot, the executive director of the Scouting Museum. Dan spoke about the beginning of the process.

“So, Skip, asked me if I want to use my editing video abilities, and I said ‘sure.’ Because, like most people, I’ve seen the mural … but I knew almost nothing about his life, and it’s important, the significance in the Civil war or another places. And so, I learned as [I was] involved in this documentary about him.”

Mollie and a few other members of the committee responsible for the creation of the documentary took a trip to the Springfield Lincoln Museum where they learned of informational resources. One that proved to be extremely helpful was a book published by Wallace’s adopted daughter, Isabel Wallace. Skip explains.

“Wallace’s adopted daughter, Isabela, wrote a book called ‘The Life and Letters of W.H.L. Wallace,’ that really had a lot of information, including letters that he and his wife wrote him, that other people wrote, [T. Lyle] Dickey, and that was one big resource that we had. In fact, there’s a portion in the documentary where Dan has Wallace and, Ann being pictured, writing letters to each other and they use the exact language that are in the letters, verbatim.”

“In fact, almost (not 100 percent), but almost all of the dialogue within the video is verbatim from the book. So there’s a narrator part which sanitized parts together. But, as far as with whatever Wallace speaks or his wife, Ann, speaks in the movie, is verbatim from the book written by the daughter. And we’ve got a young man and a young woman to play the parts. Well, they really did a bang up job.”

In addition to utilizing historical research, the documentary includes three interviews with local experts (including Skip) on Wallace’s life. Local historian Dave Mumford researched and discusses Wallace’s early years. Skip explains the mid range of Wallace’s life, during his time in Ottawa as an attorney. Another local historian, Dan Schot, goes over the general’s life from around the time of the Lincoln Douglas debate (1858), through the Civil War, and his death. Ottawa local Jay McCracken was also interviewed for the documentary, as he now lives in the old Wallace home, The Oaks. Many scenes for the film were shot right in the home of General Wallace. His death was filmed at the Reddick Mansion.

Dan and Skip further explained their vision for parts of the documentary.

“But I think what makes it more interesting, is we shot it from the perspective of William Wallace, who in the Battle of Shiloh, they had held their position for five hours against heavy onslaught and really saved the the battle for the Union. Then he took a bullet, or many, to the head, didn’t kill him, knocked him off his horse. They thought he was dead. They left him for dead. That was five in the afternoon, and they found him the next day at about nine o’clock. So, we imagined him laying there all night, in this thunderstorm. It rained heavily that night, thunder and lightning. But we imagine him laying, recounting his life In the time, as a young boy. Until that moment, the Civil War we shot that up at the Toll House. Yeah, For the history of the boxes on that barge, we needed ammunition boxes in the background.” 

“It’s a love story too. [Wallace] is madly in love with his wife and she had gotten permission to come and visit him on the battlefield, not knowing to be a battle of that day. She arrived basically the same day the battle started, And so, he even says that there’s nothing he’d like more than be able to see his wife’s face. That was a few days before he got shot. Well, come find out she was there, And so he lived another four days. She was told initially that he had been killed, of course. Everyone thought he was dead. His horse came in without him.”

“The book revealed the letters that she that he wrote from Shiloh before the battle, were getting darker and, she could sense that he was being depressed. He was upset, I say, even angry at some of the political stuff that was going on. He didn’t think it was being handled correctly at the governmental level. And he reflected that only to her in these letters, and so she thought ‘I need to go see him, just cheer up his spirits.’”

Forgotten Valor is an educational journey with a variety of important themes. All culminating in the importance of remembering local history.

Dan and Skip hope for the documentary to be shown it schools. It just about fits the span of time for a class period and could be used for a local history curriculum. Furthermore, they hope for the film to increase interest in the history of Ottawa and LaSalle County. The creators also hope to one day have the documentary play on national television.

Skip praised his creative partner’s work.

“I think what Dan has done here with this is every bit as good as what Ken Burns has done,” Skip said. “I think Chicago would be very interested in having us on TV and Channel 11.”

More recently, we had the chance to speak with Chris Vallillo, the musician who created the soundtrack for the documentary. He spoke with us about his favorite song on the soundtrack after he performed at the Reddick Mansion on November 12.

“That song, Lorena? I just love how it emulates the era, allegories of nature for love. But, you know, it’s slower, but the melody is just gorgeous. That is a definite favorite of mine, in terms of the documentary,” Chris said.

Vallillo conducted research to find the perfect songs and instruments to use for creating the soundtrack. Some of these songs are obscure banjo compositions. It would have been extremely likely to have heard some of these songs in the Ottawa of the 1800s.

“It was a bit of a challenge to find it and then arrange it, but I think it really captures the mood and the era really, really well… As I told Dan when we started the project, my job is to interpret what you’ve got on the film and on the screen and you know, find a way to support it with music. And I just really enjoy that experience. I think it’s a really cool creative process, And It just resonates with me personally.”

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Special thanks to Dan Hennenfent, Skip Hupp, and Chris Vallillo for their time, as well as Peg Reagan and Mollie Perrot for inviting us to the performance and sharing this experience with Ottawa.