>> this event was part of the historical parks small battles, big resorts -- big results symposium. >> as i mentioned, i lived in the chattanooga area for about eight, nine years, and ringgold gap is 17 miles south down interstate 75. i got very interested in that battle. i also got very interested in what became, who became one of my favorite civil war generals who turned out to be not from one of those northeastern states. patrick cleburne, from arkansas. i got very interested in the battle of ringgold gap. i want to start, november 27, 1863.

now, we have to start with the two leading protagonists at the battle of missionary ridge in chattanooga. of course, ulysses grant. hiram ulysses grant actually. was a rising star as a general. had not really lost a battle yet during the war, and eventually he goes on to further greatness. on the other side you have braxton bragg. although the story might be a little bit apocryphal, apparently as lieutenant in, during the seminole wars, he became the acting commissary officer. the story is he wrote a request

to the commissary officer himself for supplies. as a commissary officer, he turned them down. he sent another request that was turned down again, so went to the captain of the regiment and said, i reached an impasse, what should i do? the captain said, bragg, you have argued with every officer in the army, and now you are arguing with yourself. request denied. so, braxton bragg, we had a symposium two years ago, of generals you love to hate. it was very interesting to me he was not picked. there could not possibly be a man in the confederate army that was hated more than braxton bragg. during the mexican war, there were two attempts on his life. braxton bragg and general grant at chattanooga. ok, so we have to do a little bit about the actual battle

there. this is one of those wonderful battlefield maps of the chattanooga region. basically, grant after sherman shows up with his army, with his corps, decides he wants general sherman to be the hero of the battle. if you look up here, i know some people can't see red, but there is sherman on the left wing. the plan grant had that day, on november 25, was for sherman to attack this wing, and roll up bragg's line along missionary ridge. also he had general hooker, coming down off lookout mountain, and crossing the creek here and attacking the ridge, so have a pincer movement on both sides to roll up this whole

line. bragg's line was fairly weak. he had sent away general long street to knoxville for some reason, even though he was facing two to one odds, almost three to one. and bragg's engineer, a man by the name of ledbetter from the most northern of the new england states -- [laughter] had actually set the lines in a faulty position. he put the lines on top of the ridge instead of the military crest. so, when the attack actually does happen, the lines are really in a bad spot. but sherman up here on this flank is unable to crack the confederate troops in this area, led by patrick cleburne.

cleburne had the best division in the confederate army, and although they tried several times to break through, cleburne was able to beat them back. eventually, cleburne's men are starting to run out of ammunition and charge down the hill, capture four flags and sherman has to retreat. so sherman is not doing his part over here, and grant is getting very, very upset. he goes to general thomas in the middle and says, let's make a demonstration towards the middle of the missionary ridge line, and thomas sends out his men. they get to the bottom and realize they can't stay. they are being shot at, at that spot. so on their own they decide to travel up the ridge, and they actually break through, right here where bragg's headquarters was. hooker is stalemated by this creek here.

there is a tiny little bridge, basically this creek, you could spit across it and he wants to build a bridge so he is stymied here. he never really gets up until thomas' men have actually broken through. so this is a huge disaster for , the confederate army. they have to retreat. there's all kinds of heroes. you know that for example, douglas macarthur's father was there. macarthur hehur , won the medal of honor, leading wisconsin troops up to the top. bragg has to retreat over to chickamauga station. casualties for the union army amounted to about 5800 with about 753 killed. the confederates lost 6600 including about 4000 prisoners.

so it was a major, major defeat for the army of tennessee. this gives you a little bit of a closer look, of the area on missionary ridge cleburne was defending. when i was in chattanooga, i had this painting commissioned by rick reeves, called "on empty rifles." there is cleburne. you can see lookout mountain, in the background. cleburne is in front of the texas consolidated regiment. they have run out of ammunition and he tells them to charge down with bayonets, on empty rifles. people are not buying prints anymore, but very proud of that one. there is patrick cleburne. ok. so let's talk a little about

patrick cleburne before we get to the battle. cleburne was born in county cork, the second son of dr. joseph cleburne, a solid middle-class position. patrick's mother died when he was 18 months old and was an orphan at 15 when his father unexpectedly died. but he followed his father into the study of medicine, but failed the entrance exam at trinity college in dublin, in 1846. in response to this failure, he enlisted in the 41st regiment of foot in the british army, expecting that would be a fairly exciting thing. unfortunately, the 41st regiment was stationed in ireland, to keep an eye on the catholics, and the irish in that area. so he spent most of his time there on guard duty. he eventually was able to buy

off his commission, his enlistment in the army. he had inherited a small amount of money. three years later, he and his two brothers and a sister immigrated to the united states. they originally settled in cincinnati, ohio, but he moved on by himself to helena, arkansas in 1849 where he obtained employment as a pharmacist, and was accepted in the town's social order. in 1860, he had become a naturalized citizen of the united states and began the practice of law. and was a very popular, was very popular with local residents. during this time, he became close friends with thomas hyndman, another future confederate general from helena and a local democratic politician.

when the war started, he readily joined the confederate army, was elected captain almost immediately of the rifles, and -- of the yellow rifles and soon became colonel of the first arkansas. just before shiloh, he is promoted to general. his service at shiloh is mixed, as everyone else's was at shiloh. no one came out of that battle looking very good, but he was promoted to general. later, one year later he is seriously wounded at the battle of richmond as a bullet goes through his cheek, breaking a couple of teeth. that is when he decided to grow a beard, to cover up the scar. and so, cleburne's men are actually ordered down the line from tunnel hill.

you see chickamauga, on the railroad. -- on the western and atlantic railroad. they had orders to destroy a stockpile of supplies, which hurt the men's feelings quite a bit because they had been living on half rations for quite some time and they get to the station and the result is food. the men got as much food as they could in their haversack's, and the rest of it they burned. an unknown staff officer came with orders to march to graysville. whoops go back. , which is just down the line on the western atlantic railroad down here. cleburne didn't think it was a good idea to leave the supply wagons, and so he rejected that order on his own authority, which shows a little bit of confidence the man had developed since the battle of shiloh. he was willing to ignore general

hardy's orders because he thought this would be a better choice. often times, soldiers don't do that. but around midnight, another officer, staff officer from bragg, came with orders to ford the chickamauga creek down below graysville, down here. to bivouac on the other side. cleburne ignored that order. he didn't want his men marching at night and going into a river, and freezing. remember, this is november 27th. so he ignores that order also. finally, at 2:00 a.m. in the morning on the 28th, he receives an order by courier to hold ringgold gap at all hazards. cleburne doesn't know who this carrier is. he's never seen this man before. also, he doesn't really trust bragg's orders anymore.

he's just been routed at missionary ridge. so he asks that these orders be written. he sends off one of his aides to find general bragg and have written orders so he would actually have this. so, he sends off captain irving a. buck. captain buck finds bragg, about five miles down the road. bragg is very emotional, saying you have got to save the army, you have got to tell cleburne to save the army. he writes down the orders that are here. the general desires you take a strong position in the gorge and try to check the pursuit of the enemy. he must be punished until our trains get well advanced. the reports from the rear are leader and the general is not

thoroughly advised of the state of things, there, which is not unusual for bragg. captain buck comes back with that. so cleburne stopped his men on the others of chickamauga creek -- the other side of chickamauga creek and allows them to rest for about three hours. while doing this, he crosses the creek himself and brings a few men over and sets up large bonfires so that when the men have to actually cross the creek they will be able to warm themselves and put their clothes back on, will not be marching around for the rest of -- whoops, i just did something -- for the rest of the evening they won't be marching in cold clothing. i want to talk a little about ringgold. before i get on with the battle

itself. a small little town, about 2000 people at this time, 70 miles south of chattanooga. -- 17 miles south of chattanooga. it is named after major samuel ringgold, one of the early graduates of west point in 1818. ringgold was the man who developed the concept of the flying artillery and wrote a field manual. he's known as the father of the flying artillery. he is the first officer killed in the mexican war. at the battle of palo alto. if you know the fourth verse of "maryland, my maryland," he's mentioned. with ringgold's spirit for the fray. i'm not going to sing it, but it is there. the town of ringgold is named after this hero of the mexican war. kind of looks a little like wellington, i think. anyway. so here is what ringgold looks like. there is a gap.

a definite gap, right here, between two little mountains, white oak mountain right here and taylor's ridge on this side. here is the town today. today, it has about 14,000 people. interstate 75 goes right through the gap, along with chickamauga creek. this gap is about 400 yards wide, so you can barely get four lanes of highway through, plus a creek. that's the gap he had to defend. we are talking something that is a lot like thermopylae, basically the spartans all over again. this is a picture taken at the time by george bernard, who was basically sherman's photographer during the war, of ringgold.

there's white oak mountain. right here. there's the gap. there's taylor's ridge. i took these pictures about 15 years ago, so that you can see all the road signs. if you want gas, that's where you stop on the way to atlanta. now, what do you notice immediately? it doesn't look like you're going to actually be able to charge anybody on this hill. this hill was pretty much a defense by itself. so if you are defending the gap, you will defend the gap and then defend your right flank along white oak mountain. there is city hall. there is the ball field.

there's an old depot there, the ringgold depot, which was there during the battle, established in 1845. the tracks going through the gap. if you look closely at the building, you can see places where cannonballs hit the building during the battle. and you can buy a brick. now, i went up on white oak mountain, to take pictures looking down at the city and visited some nice people with beautiful homes on the ridge and asked if i could take pictures from their lawns. so, this is one of them. now, there was at the time, we're talking about maybe 1997, there was at the time -- this ranger tower there, surrounded by a fence that said "do not enter, dangerous."

i thought i should check it out. [laughter] so i get over the fence and i climbed to the top of the tower, because i figured they will be some nice pictures to take from up there, and i want to make sure it's not really all that dangerous. so i went to the top and there is a ladder, you climb and go through a hole through the bottom of the ranger station up there, and what i found was interesting. there was a mattress. there was some see-through paper with a ribbon around it, like with flowers you buy at shop and save or something. there was a court bottle of -- quart bottle of beer, and some other things which i will not mention. [laughter] yes. so, i thought, well, this is the

place for a date, then. [laughter] so i did get some nice pictures from up there, anyway. and that's from the tower looking down on the city of ringgold. a hot date. and there's another picture with a close-up lens. i can't claim to be a great photographer, but it was a nice, hot, hazy summer day. so these are the men who fought in ringgold's division. 29 regiments in total and that is only 4200 men. think of that. most regiments had 1000 men, and

so those 29 regiments represented 2900 men and he's down to 4217 men in these four different brigades. liddel's brigade, actually liddel was on vacation on home leaves so daniel govan took over from him. he was from north carolina and had quite an interesting career before the war. he went on the gold rush in california with ben mcculloch, interesting gentleman in his own time. he became deputy sheriff of sacramento for a while, then moved back to mississippi and arkansas as a planter. he fought at the battle of shiloh, stone river, chickamauga, and was promoted

after this battle to brigadier general. he had the arkansas guys. cleburne thought the fifth and 13th arkansas was his shock troops. they were the best troops in his entire division. so they were kind of like the old guard, just kind of his favorites. whenever he was in trouble, he would turn to the fifth and 13th arkansas. hiram granberry, on the bottom there, was in charge of smith's brigade. smith had been wounded at missionary ridge, so granberry took over that brigade, from texas. 1226 men and they were from texas. the consolidated 10th and 15th texas was in that painting i showed you. the seventh texas and then the consolidated 17th, 18th, 24th, and 25th texas, showing you how much they had been used during the war. granbury moved to texas and

studied law at baylor university. he was captured at fort donaldson, exchanged and became a colonel of the seventh texas regiment. slightly wounded at chickamauga and in temporary command because james smith was wounded at missionary ridge. he was promoted to general in february of 1864, and he's one of the seven generals who was killed at franklin, almost exactly one year later. always loved his hair. [laughter] lucius polk from north carolina, moved to columbia, tennessee and then helena. was a friend of cleburne's, joined the army with cleburne and became colonel of the 15th arkansas, and was then promoted to general in december 1862. later on, after this engagement, he would be very severely wounded in the battle of kennesaw mountain, which ended his military career, but he did

live a long, prosperous life after that. his brigade was down to 545 men, representing six regiments, if you can imagine that. finally, mr. lowry, mark lowery. he was an interesting fellow, a southern baptist preacher in mississippi and a colonel of the fourth mississippi. he was wounded in the arm and became a general in 1863. cleburne called him the bravest man in the confederate army. his men called him the preacher general, so he must have been fun to be around. confederate soldier sam watkins actually wrote about polk, in his book. every battle polk was engaged in he led his men to victory or , held the enemy at bay.

us surge about a was against and he always seemed to snatch victory out of the very jaws of defeat. in every battle, polk's brigade of cleburne's division, the making of his name as the stonewall of the west was due to lucius polk. pull was to cleburne what marat was to the old guard, what sam watkins said. so they have to cross chickamauga creek. i took a picture of the creek in june of 1997, and it was still pretty high at the time. remember, november 27, it is pretty cold, very cold. apparently there were ice floes on the river that evening. this is at about the spot cleburne's men crossed. you can see the town of ringgold has put a little walking path along the side of chickamauga creek.

another picture of it. at the time, it was about four feet deep, so when you crossed across it, the water would come up to your armpits for most of these guys. so they had to disrobe and carry everything they had over their heads, with their rifle and ammunition over their heads as they crossed the creek. now, this is file after file, an eyewitness account. file after file into that icy flood, four feet deep, struggling to reach the opposite shore. the men held their guns and accouterments on top of their heads, with bated breath and chattering teeth, they waded waist deep in ice cold water. how i dreaded my turn.

as my file reach the edge of the water we plunged in and clenched , teeth for fear that our breath would come out in such force that it would end in a scream. it proved too severe of an ordeal for one of my file, a great, big huge fellow. as we stepped into the icy water to our waist, he hollered at the top of his voice "jesus christ, god almighty!" however, with few exceptions we passed over very quickly and struck the mountain trail and were very soon in the gap. now, cleburne had gone ahead and he was reconnoiting the ground and deciding what he was going to do. one of the persons who did a really good book about cleburne, is muriel jocelyn. her book on cleburne i think is very good. in her book, she mentions she

thought cleburne had done some studying of the napoleonic campaigns in portugal and spain. she said she thought he had remembered a battle in portugal that happened on september 27, 1810, that is very similar to the terrain he was going to be fighting on. there is a stream on one flank, a mountain on the others. -- other side. there are ridges and gaps in those ridges as you move up on white oak mountain. there are several ravines you have to go up. it is not a straight, flat area, as you are marching up. so she decided, and i kind of agree with her, that this was the plan. he was going to defend that gap, ignore the other side with the steep mountain and concentrate his men on white oak mountain. so when he moved into town, this is the order the brigades

actually moved in. crossing the creek, moving into town, then moving towards the gap. this is about 3:00 in the morning. the federal army is actually coming down the road, and he knows he doesn't have much time before he's going to have to meet the enemy. now, who is the enemy? well, the guy coming down the road was general hooker. general hooker, because remember, he was on the right flank on missionary ridge, so his troops were in position to follow down the gap and to this gap, ringgold gap. one guy mentions, as hooker went by, that he was a very handsome man. that he was a very handsome man, so there he is.

he was born in massachusetts in 1814, graduated the military academy. foot,d at antietam in the made a big deal about it. somebody wrote a dispatch. he became fighting joe hooker. got very badly defeated in may of 1863, hit on the head by a teller --pillar. from the east to chattanooga before the battle of missionary ridge. he was in command of the 11th and 12 in their move to the western theater and in an amazing feat of engineering, it only took them two weeks to get there by railroad.

his forces, 46 regimens. -- 12,532 men in total divided into four divisions. clayburgh has one division. four divisions are going to becoming at him. here, ieresting fellows think peter is very interesting, in man who had been educated as an army officer in prussia. had a very thick german accent. his men often did not know what he was saying, but he did some good fighting during the war. the most interesting man is probably general john w geary. he is one of those guys who keeps showing up in different places, he just has a knack for being in some place at one time or another. very interesting career. he was six foot six inches,

about 250 pounds. it's not surprising that he was wounded five times during the battle. he was a big target. which is interesting. he moved mexican war, off to california and became the first mayor of san francisco. after a while, he decided he wanted to go back east and went back to pennsylvania and then was appointed governor of the kansas territory which was a lot of fun because he can governor during bleeding kansas. so he pops up. starts, he joined the army, he is made a general almost immediately. he has an arm and a leg wound. and he is knocked unconscious by passeonball which just his head so fast it made him

unconscious. his son died in his arms at the battle of our hatchet, just before the battle of missionary ridge. he is leading the 12th core second division and some very, very interesting regimens in that division. that is the union army coming down the road. now, hooker does not have his artillery with him. remember, i told you about that bridge they are building over chattanooga creek. they could not finish it. they could not get the artillery over. inventory -- infantry coming in. as the last elements of the confederate cavalry rode toward the gap after seeing the federals moving in, leading the clayburghoops,

assembled his commanders. he drew a battle plan in the dirt with his finger, the most vulnerable part of attack was on his right flank. he told them, which came to an abrupt end at a ravine on black hawk ridge. in trust of this part of the line to his texans under the command. the left flank butted up against taylor's ridge and he assigned this to the 16 delavan -- to the 16th alabama. he knew that probably, there were not going to be any attacks on that side but he wanted to put some people out there because some of them had repeating rifles. only means to retreat if things went wrong was the most vital and clayburgh decided to and ofsome depths,

course, the first man in line were the fifth and 13th arkansas. under the very popular irish , followed byurray four additional regimens to create a wall in the gap, knowing that was going to be the first place the federal troops attacked. he had planned for a cushioned and multilayered defense where successive players of troops might absorb an enemy attack or be available to rush. other brigades in his division were behind, and with orders to stay there until they were ordered, he knew they were eventually going to end up. were menwn the road from the 13th illinois which is interesting, because they were first going to meet the 13th

regiment from arkansas. damage, hemaximum ordered his men to lie down and send brigades to the rear behind the ridge in orders -- with orders to wait in the ready. irish filed into the small ravine, they were reinforced by a section of two napoleon canons under the command of lieutenant richard goldthwait. the only artillery that he had at his disposal. clayburgh would direct the action from this point. in one of the put canons and a load of canister in the other. they were put into place. i just like this picture.

now, the cannons are loaded and ready. he puts a screen in front of the cannons so that they are not exposed. what he is hoping is that the federal troops will get as close as possible and he's going to load with his cannon and his men can start firing. as ig down the road, mentioned, the 13th illinois volunteer regiment from northern illinois, nicknamed fremont's greyhounds. they had originally been under the command of pathfinder fremont. they were the first three-year regiment from illinois. they were the first illinois regimen to get into missouri. attached to hooker's command because they had been at the battle of missionary ridge were the regimen captured 2500 prisoners. so they had already done some pretty good work. lieutenant colonel frederick partridge was in charge.

they are waiting for the 13th illinois to get closer and closer. and the keeping silent and holding our fire, everything was plain before our site. the railroad running like an arrow and to end through the village in the background. clayburgh and an eight were hidden behind us. clayburgh behind a tree. we were not to fire until he said so. as i lay in the gully, i took a look at him now and then. i was looking at him when he gave the order to fire. it allowed the head of the enemy column to come within 100 feet of us. indeed, it did not look more than that. on, they came. carelessly, not in line of battle. a marching column.

out,irmishers were thrown no sign of seeing us or suspecting us. what a site that was. what a moment. now then, boys, given to them, boys, clayburgh shouts out. and goldthwait viruses can. from that ravine and from the ridge went a torrent of deadly solid shot and canister and bullets in the face of those men. they melted away like mist. the slaughter was fearful. in the ranks of the 13th illinois, the carnage was terrible. lieutenant colonel partridge tried to get two companies forward to shoot at the borellery's, patrick riley the colors of the flag, went down with a great shot his breast, a slight bloodsoaked the

stars and stripes. of course, the colors went down with the brave men. but they did not long remain. corporal joseph saget of company c took up old glory, now more sacred because it was drenched with patriotic blood. as the regimen was no longer advancing, this brave man brought the fly through the fork of an apple tree and cast himself upon the ground by it. it remained swinging under the eyes of the rebels during the rest of the fight and became very enticing to the 13th arkansas who kept wanting to send men out to get that flag. he would not let them do that. right, the 76rate ohio had gotten around his flank . it was a short-lived thrill and a fatal mistake. the seventh texas was lying in wait like a spider.

clayburgh had been keeping watch. the 76 were known as the licking volunteers. they had fought at fort donaldson and all of the western mostly battles. they were also temporarily attached to hooker's command because they had fought at the battle on the mountain. they actually belonged with sherman's men. nine other officers and men were killed and wounded carrying the regimens colors. within minutes, they hit the illinois troops, clinging to victory and dispersed them back down the slope. there could not have been timed more critically as his men were out of ammunition and produced the throwing rocs. was thehe rock throwers 20 three half-brother of clayburgh, christopher. realizes that the federal's have caught on and they are going to be going up the mountain, white oak mountain.

hooker, who is standing near the station, was irritated watching these western troops flee down the hillside, and he turned to general geary who was standing by him and said, have you any troops that will run away? his reply was quick, i have no troops that will run, and send some men into that gap and hold it until my artillery revives -- arrives. first, he ordered the brigade to scale the mountain. creighton was a brave fighter but a hard drinker, meeting with the seventh ohio and begin flapping his arms and crowing like a rooster. shouting roosters, i want you to walk -- walk right over them.

basically, this seventh ohio was from the cleveland area. the claim to have made furthest advanced by union troops at antietam, although there was a regimen from the northernmost of the new england states that actually did that. officers,th was 206 and 12 of the 13 officers were killed or wounded. the roosters did not do very well. seeing this movement, the general call for assistance from lowry, however any moment of intuition, general clayburgh had already sent lowry to the right. it became a foot race as the alabama and mississippi men sprinted up the hill, getting a terrific rebel yell. they won the race, beating the union forces by a few seconds. they then attended to exchange fire with the confederates while standing up. a fatal mistake as the seventh ohio and the 26th pennsylvania took heavy casualties. it was as terrific and musketry

fire as i ever witnessed, wrote one officer. in a panic, the union troops begin to retreat followed by the charging men of lowry were gay. frantic to stop his men, creighton was struck in the chest and suffered a mortal wound. 11:00, hooker ordered in the last brigade of new yorkers commanded by colonel david ireland. some of you may know the name. ireland had held the extreme right flank at the battle of gettysburg. chamberlain of the other side from that northern state. the new yorker sprinted 600 yards from the railroad, depot to the job buildings, using several men along the way. once behind the buildings, his men began to build breastworks. having learned their value.

soon, he began moving a sharpshooter ahead and then cannons back into the gap. from that point, the new yorkers stayed undercover. shooting only occasionally. for the next hour, the battlefield remained in stalemate. much, the lines that were the final lines, that is how a free much ended up. suddenly, the men heard a rumbling on the road to the rear. of missouriens horse artillery was finally coming. they were charging down the road. the flying dutchman, as he had been known, the road had been blocked with the cannons wildly bouncing. the road was cleared as by magic. his appearance was marked by

prolonged cheering by the union troops and short time, union projectiles begin rolling toward taylor's ridge. again, this is the final disposition. you can see his men down here near the buildings right up against the creek. about 11:30, a visitor road into town, working his way through crowds of idle soldiers, lacking anything else to do. the men were catching pigs and poking chickens from under sheds at how to porches -- at house porches. the visitor found general hooker sitting on a large barrel eating a sandwich interesting tea, and unusual beverage for hooker. looking up, hooker found the visitor to be, general ulysses s. grant. hooker claimed he was up against the entire rebel army. to ordermed inclined another full-scale attack but thought better of it. the battle was over.

at about the same time, clayburgh is visited by three generals, breckenridge and joseph wheeler who would tell him that the wagon train had been cleared through the gap and it was safe for him to follow that wagon train to safety. today, there'sre just enough room to put a small part. this is it. which is dedicated to his victory. there is the marker. thereis also a marker which talks about the atlantic campaign. ago, ron put up a beautiful statue at that park. and so it is there now.

money raised across the south for this. as clay burn moves through, the union troops start settling into ringgold. this is the whitman house. the story is along the william whitman. after the battle he and his staff were leaving and he offered to pay misses whitman $50 for the night but she asked for confederate money instead. saying, she thinks her boys are going to be back soon and she would rather have the confederate money. is certainly not whipped yet, said grant, and his soldiers cheered her as they left. another lady in town who had been following her husband around south, leticia ashmore wrote this in her diary for that day.

i soon learned that our army was falling back in obedience to the order, and not retreating before the yankees. well, i'm sorry, but they were retreating, not falling back. they left about two hours before the detestable blue coats came in. our house was filled with them in a few moments but they had not completed the search when we heard the most alarming notes of distress from the pigsty, henhouse, and goose pen. i've just said to mary that i must get up before daylight and d butall the fowls kille with her usual canine instinct, they had made a night attack and left not even a cock to crow in the morning. on-somebody made this is headquarters.

they were here two days. killed twoe, they oxon, five cows, several cabs, several logs, and as many docs, 30 or 40 chickens and dozens of pigeons, stole a horse, several colds, 500 pounds of corn beef, flour and wheat, then burn the mill, machine shop, the offices and all the billings. the last of them left here sunday morning. they seemed to be a good deal excited and hurried. so she did not have a very good experience with the yankees. if you go to ringgold today, the house is still there and it is a bed-and-breakfast, a beautiful place. left the sideent general clayburgh is the monument to the new yorkers

found near the pumping station, not exactly a great spot, but that is the spot that they hid behind the buildings. there is the monument. as cleburne gets through the pass,ins, and through the to the rear, there was a church, the old stone church that was used as a hospital. that hospital is still there. of course, we know what happens almost a year later in november of 1864. he is killed at the battle of franklin in kind of a useless charge. the spot that he died was at one they toreza hut but it down and built this monument to him.

very first at st. john's church and eventually moved to a beautiful gravesite overlooking the mississippi river in arkansas. ago, two museums combined to bring together his cap and his gun in the town in texas. there they are. i had the opportunity to pick those up and hold those, so that was kind of fun. and so, what is the result here? this is a small battle. did it have big results? well, i really can't say that. ift would have happened clayburgh's division had been defeated? would general grant have continued on to atlanta? with the war had ended any sooner? probably not. because we are talking at least two more ridges to travel

through, is going to have to get through another at dalton and then 100 miles to atlanta. it is now december. it is getting cold. the roads are not good. frome is getting messages lincoln, forget about burnside and knoxville. he has to send sherman up to knoxville to save burnside when he gets there. burnside has saved himself, which is a remarkable thing by itself. would grant have moved on to atlanta? probably not. but this was a huge boost to the morale of this defeated confederate army. they had suffered a massive defeat with chattanooga on missionary ridge and clayburgh's men had handled sherman's men at missionary ridge. division,my, his

became the toast of the entire army. cleburne's reputation soared as high as it ever got. and the morale was boosted. in fact, his reputation was so big at this time that he decides to come up with a plan that is going to save the south and actually and in victory. his plan to arm the slaves and offer them their freedom in return. this plan is totally rejected by most of the army, jefferson davis himself has all the copies of this plan except one destroyed, and the only reason we know about it at all is because one of them actually was saved. is it a big result? because the army was saved to fight again. bragg is replace. general johnston comes in to be a commander of the army of tennessee, and they are going to do some work in 1864 after all.

i recommend these books, these are the best books on the chattanooga campaign. also, patrick clayburgh. thank you very much. [applause] now, i would be happy to answer any questions. remember, raise your hand and colin or sherry will come down to you with a microphone. the town in texas you byerred to, he went clayburgh. >> and they call it cleburne, yes. that is not the first time that is happened to me. i mentioned it and they said we don't pronounce it that way. but this happened to me once before in georgia. i went down to a place called lafayette. they call it la-fatte down

there. that a few chuckles on one. that's not my first mistake. any other questions? wonderful. >> it is funny that you say that cleburne led the rearguard action after missionary ridge. fighting for hooker? was hooker chasing him? >> he was mostly holding off sheridan, and then it switched over to hooker because once they got across that creek and moved on the other side of the western atlantic railroad, it became hooker men who were chasing after him. to useurne's plan slaves, was he an abolitionist, or was he just being practical? >> he was being practical.

he did not own any slaves himself, we don't exactly know how he felt about slavery but he thought this was a practical solution. he understood that the north had more people than we did and he understood that they had more power and more ability to bring troops into action, and he thought that by offering them freedom and their families, by fullyy, if they became and their families became free, if he thought that might be incentive enough that they might fight for the confederacy. of course, we know that at the end of the war, generally approved of the plan to arms laves, but that came way too late. >> you said at the end grant and thinks about ordering another charge and then decides not to. why did he decide not to? >> he saw that the men were demoralized, for one thing. he saw the men laying on the

mountain, he realized almost immediately after actually seeing the situation that the gap could be defended almost forever, and that is what changed his mind. also, he just did not have any confidence in hooker at this time. later on, sherman replaces with the sky from the northernmost state of new england. anybody else? yes? >> speaking entirely hypothetically, suppose the city council of ringgold asked to come to a meeting to help them answer a citizen's proposal to remove general cleburne's statue. what would you say? >> good luck with that.

>> i'm hypothetically suggesting, let's say hypothetically that it is realistic and needs to be answered. >> cleburne is one of my big euros, i would probably not be able to go down there without defending the man, but on the director of the national museum of the civil war soldier. we don't talk about politics here, we don't have generals and are museum, we talk about the average guy. we don't talk about the generals. so as the director of the museum, i would not go. but as a citizen, i would, certainly. anybody else? it has been a long day, people. we start early tomorrow. thank you for coming tonight, we've got some great speakers lined up tomorrow.

>> his remarks were part of of by the worldsted war ii museum in new orleans. of you mayhe two have heard of the gentleman fors about to join us