Cleburne the Movie

Im not going to say much here about it, I think that Kevin Levin has done a more thoughtful post on this over at Civil War Memory, http://cwmemory.com/2010/02/05/patrick-cleburne-and-black-confederates-take-hollywood/, concerning the central theme of this movie adaption of Cleburne: A Graphic Novel, which is Cleburne's proposal to arm slaves in 1864. The few comments I would like to make concern the "other" aspects of the novel that I find troubling. First of all there are some errors that are very glaring, boulders being rolled down Missinary Ridge, It is made to look like Bragg passed command of the army directly to Joe Johnston, Hardee is completely left out, then there is the one that really gets me, the continued character assissination of Braxton Bragg, bet you would never thought you would hear that phrase, Bragg is portrayed as the ultimate villian in this, starting out by wanting to take the distinctive Hardee Corps battleflags from Cleburne as punishment, when it was Joe Johnston that did that in an attempt to have uniformity within his army. Bragg actually gave Cleburne his own saddle when he left the army and praised him in his final report for his actions at Missionary Ridge and Ringgold Gap. But to make Johnston out to be the saint and Bragg the devil it distorts the truth. Bragg is a complex figure with many warts, but no one is all good or all bad. But with that said, even if you still cant stand Bragg, you need to have the history correct. I will leave you with this paragraph from the Flags of the Confederacy website concerning the Hardee Corps flags of 1864,

"In early March of 1864, shortly after Hardee's Corps of the Army of Tennessee had returned to Dalton from its sojourn to reinforce General Polk's Army of Mississippi, General Cleburne petitioned that the four brigades of his division be permitted to retain the distinctive blue battle flags that had been employed by Hardee's Corps throughout 1863. Although General Joseph E. Johston had been attempting to enforce a uniform battle flag upon the Army of Tennessee since his arrival on 27 December 1863, he relented in the case of Cleburne's Division and allowed that command to be recognized by the blue flags with white central discs and white borders that had been their distinctive flags since Bowling Green in the winter of 1861-1862."

7th Ohio at Ringgold Gap

Today marks the 146th Anniversary of the last engagement in the Chattanooga Campaign, the Battle of Ringgold Gap. This rear guard action would pit Patrick Cleburne and his division against the ad hoc Corps of Joe Hooker, facing nearly 2 to 1 odds, Cleburne would deliver a sound defeat to Hooker, earning the thanks of the Confederate Congress for saving the Army of Tennessee. So today we are going to depart somewhat from our theme and discuss one of the opponents of the Army of Tennessee. One of the worst phases of the battle would see the attack of Col. William R. Creighton's brigade be caught in a devestating cross fire as it attacked up a ravine in White Oak Mountain, just north of Ringgold Gap. Creighton's old regiment, the 7th Ohio, would suffer particularly hard, losing 12 of the 13 officers that it had taken into action, Creighton among them. It should also be noted that they lost more men than they had lost at Gettysburg a few months prior. The 7th was known throughout the army as the Rooster Regiment, many of the officers sporting Rooster pins on their uniforms, and going into action crowing. At Ringgold, Creighton had stood on a rock as the regiment formed, flapped his arms and crowed, the men responding in kind as they started forward in their attack.

Colonel William R. Creighton was a dapper soldier, he had enlisted along with the rest of the 7th when Lincoln issued the call to arms in the spring of 1861 to preserve the Union. Creighton, born in Pittsburg, PA, had moved to Cleveland, OH, a few years prior and found employment with the Cleveland Herald. He had earned a name for himself in the local social circles as commander of the Cleveland Light Guard Zouaves, a drill team inspired by Elmer Elsworth's efforts, and with the call to arms, quickly raised a company for service. Creighton would find himself a Captain in the newly formed 7th Ohio Infantry. Seeing service first in Virginia, by the late summer of 1863, Creighton was Colonel of the regiment and bound for Chattanooga, TN. In the Battle of Lookout Mountain, Creighton's brigade commander, Col. Charles Candy, was injured giving Creighton command of the brigade, which he would command for a few days before being mortally wounded at Ringgold Gap, moments after his friend, Liet. Col. Orrin J. Crane was killed. Creighton's body along with Crane's would be carried back to Cleveland and buried side by side.

The 7th Ohio never recoved from the fight at Ringgold, and refused to reenlist in the spring of 1864, feeling they had been needlessly sacrificed at Ringgold.

St. Patrick Cleburne Day

Sorry for the little play on words there. Today is Patrick R. Cleburne's 181st birthday and since it is so often listed as being tomorrow, St. Patrick's Day, I thought I would reflect a little about Memory and Patrick Cleburne. It is curious to see how his popularity has increased over the last couple of decades, without a movie or major novel to propel him into popularity. This October there will be a statue of him errected in Ringgold, GA, site of his defense of Ringgold Gap. Cleburne now rivals N.B. Forrest for popularity among Western Theater Civil War buffs and may eclipse Forrest eventually. So why? I think it has a lot to do with him being clean of the taint of slavery and white supremacy that Forrest is linked to, Cleburne never owned slaves and is even on the record saying that he "cared nothing for them", and now Cleburne's proposal to arm slaves is being blown to bigger proportions, even though it directly contradicts the notion of Black Confederates. Now, I admit I am a great admirer of Cleburne, I bought Cleburne and his Command and Pat Cleburne" Confederate General when I was a teenager and literally wore both copies out, but that actually predates the modern surge of popularity, so back to the original premise of this post, is it now that Cleburne is more appealing due to being clean? or is it a great general finally getting his due? I think a study of Cleburne and Memory may be a new project for me.