- Billing Displacement: Henry Walthall plays the actual main character, but he receives third billing after Lillian Gish (playing his love interest) and Mae Marsh (playing one of his sisters).
- California Doubling: The movie was filmed in and around Los Angeles, as was already becoming standard practice by 1915. The Civil War battle scenes were shot in the present location of Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills. Gus chases Flora through Big Bear Valley in the San Bernardino National Forest and she jumps to her death from the cliffs above Big Bear Lake.
- Defictionalization: The burning cross so associated with the KKK actually was not used by the 19th century Klan. It was invented by Thomas Dixon for his novel, popularized by this film, and then adopted by the new Klan that was founded in response to this movie. It's taken from an old Scottish highlands tradition of alerting people to trouble by burning a giant X (not a t) on a hilltop at night.
- On-Set Injury: Erich von Stroheim worked as an extra. He fell off a roof and broke two ribs in one scene.
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