"Waiting on smoke."

"And we're rolling."

"Speed."

" 'Gods and Generals' scene 42 take one."

"And ... action."

For hundreds of Civil War re-enactors that was the sound heard time and again in secured back-lots in Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.

From August through December of 2001, men, women and entire families whose hobby is portraying the lives of those who lived through America's defining moment answered the call. Not a call to arms, as their ancestors heeded, but a casting call, a call for extras to make the movie "Gods and Generals."

Based on the novel by Jeff Shaara, "Gods and Generals" follows four Civil War officers, Gen. Robert E. Lee, Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and Winfield Scott Hancock, and how their lives compare and clash, literally, in the opening years of the conflict, from before secession to Chancellorsville.

The movie, which opened Friday, is the prequel to the 1993 film "Gettysburg," but the two are related in other ways as well.

Director Ron Maxwell also filmed "Gettysburg" and retained many of its actors for this movie. Depending on its success, he hopes to film the third of the trilogy, "The Last Full Measure," also written by Jeff Shaara. His two novels were written to frame the one by his late father, Michael Shaara, who penned "The Killer Angels," the basis for "Gettysburg."

For re-enactors, the project had familial ties as well. Every one of them knows "Gettysburg" from countless viewings on home video. Some took part in its filming in Adams County, Pa., a decade earlier. All of them were excited to be a part of the next chapter, and many included their entire families.

Unlike "Gettysburg," which focused on the three-day battle, "Gods and Generals" includes scenes other than war-torn landscapes, and characters other than soldiers. Men, women and children of all ages acted as civilians to give life to numerous Virginia scenes: everything from patriots at a parade in Lexington, to pedestrians in a Richmond thoroughfare, to boyish recruits near Harper's Ferry, to frightened refugees at Fredericksburg.

The filming schedule was not an unfamiliar regimen for the re-enactors: rising before daybreak, putting on period costumes of wool and cotton and gathering to stage a particular scenario.

The streets of Hagerstown, Md., with its 19th-century brick buildings, served as a Richmond setting, and they appeared a bit odd at 5:30 one Sunday morning. The dark streets were void of modern business but crawling with shadows of Victorian pedestrians.

Ladies and children wrapped in shawls, men in coats of broadcloth, huddled in the October chill until they funneled into a storefront to register for the day's filming. With the paperwork signed, they passed through the building and through 140 years to the movie set. The enclosed alley was staged with period trappings of wagons, barrels and wooden crates, all upon a bed of bark mulch to hide the modern paving and give the look of a dirt street.

Filming, however, would not begin for another two to three hours, until the crew was ready and sufficient daylight available. In the meantime, extras gathered in a large activity tent where space heaters kept them warm and videotapes of "dailies," previously filmed scenes, kept them entertained until breakfast was served.

Casting of extras has been dubbed a "cattle call" and with good reason. Hundreds of people are herded to an area for the job, but only a limited number are chosen. Of the crowd that turned out that morning, only about half were lucky enough to be used, leaving many people disappointed and grumbling, but nonetheless undeterred to show up another day.

The scene is a Richmond street crowded with pedestrians. A rakish man and three ladies make their way from an alley, through the crowd and to a platform. "All the world's a stage, and all men merely players," he shouts. The man is John Wilkes Boothe and his preface from Shakespeare launches him into a fiery rallying speech for the Southern cause. The crowd listens captively to the 19th-century celebrity and erupts in cheers when he concludes.

Not all filming for civilian extras was as scripted or as close to the camera as this. Another shot used a handful of volunteers to serve as "deep background." Their job was to serve as street traffic, to walk back and forth between buildings in the background while the camera is focused on actors in the foreground. The effect is a peripheral view of pedestrians.

Selection of sites for filming "Gods and Generals" required quite an effort by its production staff. Getting enough land to serve as a battlefield, land that could pass as a 19th-century landscape devoid of cell-phone towers, power lines and encroaching development, took some searching. Finally hundred-acre farms in southern Maryland and Virginia were secured for the purpose.

Harper's Ferry National Park also makes a cameo appearance in the film.

The 200-year-old buildings in the historical village serve as both Harper's Ferry and as street scenes during the Battle of Fredericksburg.

Casting also was a challenge for director Maxwell, as retaining actors from "Gettysburg" to appear in this prequel met with some obstacles. Jeff Daniels returns as Chamberlain, but Martin Sheen, who had played Robert E. Lee, is busy playing the president of the United States in "The West Wing." Oscar winner Robert Duvall was signed to play the Confederate leader.

Finding an actor to play Stonewall Jackson also took quite a search. Russell Crowe was considered but declined. Finally New York actor Stephen Lang, who played Gen. George Pickett in "Gettysburg," was chosen for the part.

Wives of the military leaders are also featured in the film with Mira Sorvino portraying Fannie Chamberlain.

The title "Gods and Generals" reflects the vital role religion played in the age. (It has been said that God is an unseen character in the film.) Lee and Jackson were very devout men who saw themselves as instruments in the hands of Providence. Both sides, North and South, prayed to the same God, but both had differing ideas of what the divine will was.

Similarly, the generals are, themselves, god-like, gods on earth who have the power to wreak destruction and order the deaths of thousands.