The Horse Soldiers or Grierson's Raid

Editor's Note—Harold Sinclair's successful Civil War novel The Horse Soldiers was well received by critics and students of the war. Now it is being made into a motion picture. The following article by the writer-producers of the film is a departure from our traditional subject matter, but the editor believes that all Civil Warstudents will be intrigued by the problems involved in telling the story of Grierson's Raid through the medium of the motion picture film. The Horse Soldiers or Grierson's Raid JOHN LEE MAHIN and MARTIN RACKIN there are many reasons why Hollywood sets out to make a motion picture about the Civü War. As two new producer-writers who have just walked wearily and joyously down that road, we feel that perhaps our reasons would interest the readers of a single-purpose journal such as Civil War History. No doubt David O. Selznick was inspired to transfer to film Gone With The Wind because of its great love story when he purchased the galleys from Margaret Mitchell and was perceptive enough to recognize that it would become one of the best sellers of all time. John Huston and Dore Schary were undoubtedly moved by the poetic passages of Red Badge of Courage and envisioned this property transformed to film as a document that would truly portray the futility of war. There have been many assorted and varied films using as a basis the carpetbagger period in the South, and many westerns using as antagonist or protagonist the embittered Blue-Belly veteran from the North or the Johnny Reb of the Confederacy who lost his plantation in the struggle. Our venture into our first independent motion picture was decided upon when we read Harold Sinclair's novel The Horse Soldiers. To us as writers, it had all the dash and boldness of a commando raid. It had a fresh background for its type of story, and we both felt sympathetically that the War between the States was the last of the gallant wars. It was 183 184JOHN LEE mahin and MARTIN RACKIN the last ofthe great cavalry charges with guidons flying, colors unfurled, sabres pointed, and horses' hoofs pounding. It was the last time that America would ever war brother against brother. There was a chance in this epic story for a spectacle and an opportunityforwarmth . It had the necessary elements for color and large screen. It had reality, which to us is the prime requisite of a great motion picture. We purchased the book and then went deeper into the source material. Professor D. A. Brown of the University of Illinois had published a definitive work on Grierson's Raid, and we began reading and digesting the background of the ne'er-do-well music teacher and merchant who led the gallant strike against Newton Station. In our own little league we became authorities on the 1700-man stab at the Vicksburg Railroad and on the rugged, ragged band that staggered valiantly into Baton Rouge. The library at the University of California at Los Angeles was a mother lode, and we read day and night acquainting ourselves with the problems of Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson. Actually, from all we could find in die research reports that we used, Grierson had little fighting on his hands that was pictorial until Wall's Bridge, the rest of the trek being quick ambushes and feints that kept the Confederate hunters off guard and confused. Using motion picture license, we had to make the Battle at Wall's Bridge larger and abo have a dramatic rape at Newton Station. As all scholars of Grierson's Raid know, the taking of Newton Station was actuallya cakewalk from the Union viewpoint, as there was virtually no resistance and the rowdiness of the troops was a blemish upon the deportment of the cavalry. Soon after the town was taken, an ancient Confederate freight train loaded with ordnance and commissary supplies came puffing into town and was captured by the Union troops, then under the command of William Blackburn. When it was discovered that this train and another that rolled in soon after carried artillery shells and other explosives, Blackburn...