F. Lesson Plan 3: Modified for ADD

Lesson Plan By: Lauren McCoy

Lesson: Summarizing and Understanding Main Ideas in Texts

Grade: 7th grade English Length: 60 minutes

Standard: c.c. 7.RI.2-Determine two or more central ideas in a text and analyze their

development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.

Objectives:

Given an informational text on slavery from Civil War Times, students will write 1-2 main ideas

identified in the text.

When given a handout, students will write a one-2 sentence summary of Civil War Times with

80% accuracy.

Assessment: Before the class is dismissed, I will have students write on a scrap piece of paper

one or two main ideas in the text that we read and have them turn it in to me before they

leave. Also, the text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world worksheet will provide me with the

students' understanding of analyzing ideas and connecting them to other things. It will also let

me know if they understand summarizing central ideas, since bigger ideas are the ones that you

can apply and relate to other things/events/people. Furthermore, the star organizer they fill

out will help me see who understands the standard.

Advanced Prep By Teacher:

Teacher will find a graphic organizer that shows how to get the main ideas from a text.

Teacher will also need to find Civil War Times Magazine and print off enough for each student.

Teacher will need to make enough text connections worksheets/charts for each student as

well.

Teacher may also want to review the article reading.

Introduction: How many of you have trouble understanding the 'gist' or main idea of reading

materials? Does it frustrate you when you cannot summarize and tell others what you have just

read or watched? What confuses you the most about reading longer texts/pieces? (This should

spark a short class conversation).

--

Step-by-Step: 1. Pass out graphic organizers and go over the different parts of understanding

the main idea of a reading (who, what, when. where. Why.. Etc.). Tell them to take notes on

the back or sides of organizer with information you are going to give them. Tell them to also

write in the answers in each part of the star that correlates to the article they are going to read.

Once they are done reading, they will write their own summary of the main idea at the bottom

ofthe star organizer. (MI's: Spacial/Visual).

2. Write on the board and also verbally tell them that when they summarize or give the main

idea, they need to do it in short sentences, trying not to use more than 10 words to do so. The

overall objective is to tell someone what the article is about, without going into detail, but still

giving them enough information to know what the piece is about. To help you, you can use the

things on the star to help form your summary or main idea. The concept of summarizing is

keeping it short and simple, leaving out all the details that were mentioned in the text.

Examples of good and bad summarizing main ideas are with the star organizer for them to look

at. (MI's: Verbal/Linguistic, Visual/Spacial).

3. Explain that understanding the gist of readings can help them relate concepts and main ideas

to other things in life and literature. Tell them also that standardized tests writers/administers

think it's important for them to be able to understand the main idea of a text, so it is imperative

that they learn this and can master main ideas. Tell them they will be reading an article from an

old magazine and then summarizing the 'gist' or main idea when they are done. Remind them

to fill out the star organizer as they progress through the reading.

4. Pass out Civil War Times and tell them they will be doing reading aloud to the class. Teacher

will do most of the reading, since it is kind of long, and take volunteers occasionally (MI: Verbal)

(Read Aloud Activity)

5. Have a couple dictionaries out and available for students to look up words they do not know

that might pop up throughout the reading. (Teacher will prompt this during reading. An

example would be in the second paragraph the word "taciturn.' "Who knows what this word

means?" If no one knows, have a volunteer look up the word and tell the class. Continue with

reading the article (IVII: Linguistic).

6. Once the Read Out loud session is done, pass out the text-to__ worksheet and have them

fill it out according to the reading. They may work with partners quietly if they wish. (MI:

Interpersonal)

-

7. Also, have students finish up the star organizer (if they have not already) and have them turn

it in when they are done. Ask some ofthe Bloom's questions included below as well.

r- .

Closure: Draw students' attention to front of class. Emphasize that writing and summarizing

main ideas can help them understand the gist of things, and also help them with writing thesis

statements for future assignments and papers. Tell them that the worksheet it is homework

due for the next day if they do not get it done. Also, before the bell rings, have them take out a

small piece of paper and either write: a. something they learned about summarizing main

ideas, or b. 2 example sentences of a good summary including the main ideas of the reading

they read in class. They must turn this in before the leave.

Adaptations/Enrichment for ADD: This lesson is pretty much already geared towards students

with ADD. I am pairing reading aloud with oral and written notes and instructions, and I'm also

including a graphic organizer, which will hopefully help them stay on track. If they are confused

or need guidance, they can look at the organizer. Also, I will shorten the worksheet assignment

and only have them do their choice of 2 of the 3 categories in the text to text worksheet. Giving

them a choice will help them keep interest on what is being taught, instead of forcing them to

do something that might get them off track. I will not give them homework either. Whatever

they get done on the worksheet is fine, so long as I see them working hard on it. If they are not

on track, then the rest of the worksheet will be given as homework. I will also allow for little

,- breaks in between transitions if they need it. Furthermore, for the RRR, I will place the student

next to a stronger-reading student so they can help them follow along and point out the

sentences we are reading and keep them focused. The students can also aid in note taking if

need be. If the students' oral reading is weak, I will allow for them to be 'skipped' in the RRR,

or have their seat-buddy help them read aloud.

Self-Reflection: Since I have not taught this lesson, I will measure the impact of my teaching by

looking at the worksheets and seeing if the students understand the standard that was taught. I

will ask questions the next day to go over what we learned in this lesson, and then ask if they

have review questions or are confused about the material. Also, if I see the class is being

disruptive and not engaged in what they are doing, then I will know to do something different

and more engaging next time to enhance their learning. Like I said earlier, I will use the exit

slips, and worksheets/graphic organizers to gauge their learning and see if we need a review

activity or game later.

Bloom's Questions to Ask along the Way or After Reading

What does' taciturn' mean? Ask this for other such vocab words presented throughout reading

(Bloom's Knowledge)

What is the main idea ofthe first page, so far? (Bloom's Comprehension)

What other way could you plan to find a summary? (Other graphic organizers, mnemonic

devices, etc.) (Bloom's Application)

How might knowing how to summarize and identify main ideas help you? (Bloom's Application)

How is this article related to other things you have read or learned about? (see text

to_worksheet) (Bloom's Analysis)

look at your star organizer and write a main idea summary of what we just read. How would

you improve it? (Bloom's Synthesis)

How would you rate the help the graphic organizer gave you for this lesson? ( 1-10 scale; 1

poor, 10, awesome). (Bloom's Evaluation).

Story Star: Figuring Out How to Summarize Ideas Presented in Writing

Examples of good, strong main idea and/or summaries from stories you may

know:

Good Example Poorl OK Example Cinderella Story

A story based on treating Cinderella is about a girl who others with respect and being becomes a princess. She is nice to others that is treated poorly by her step presented through the view of sisters and mom and she has a girl named Cinderella, who to scrub the floors and do all is eventually rewarded for kinds of chores. One day, fairy being 'good-hearted.' godmothers give her a day to

be a princess, and after she meets her Prince, she has to go home and return to a horrible life. But he finds her and puts her lost glass shoe

I on and he knows she is the one he loves! They end up happily ever after.

The Boy Who Cried Wolf A fable that teaches children A rowdy boy who likes to not to lie or joke to get cause trouble calls for help a attention. It is centered on a lot and people come running little boy who gets his to help him, and every time comeuppance when he he laughs at them when they continues to lie about a wolf. are fooled. One time, there

really is a wolf and he cries for help but the townspeople don't believe him anymore and the boy gets eaten by the wolf because he is a liar. I

Now, write your own summary ofthe main idea(s) in Civil War Times here:

r

TEXT CONNECTION WORKSHEET

Name:

Text to Self A connection between the text and something in your own life experience

Text to Text A connection between the text and text that you have read previously from the same piece/book/article

Text to World A connection between the text and something this occurring or has occurred in the world, or something you can relate to somewhere else.

Text from Novel:Text from Novel:Text from Novel:

Text-World Connection Text-Text Connection Text-Self Connection:

I

-------------,---'-==-=-:=-----~

Eyewitness toAndersonville H

's.qlJa~~~·i.fJ.!,~';j miseryse~~g';

e'l~jd~'"

Mary Todd·'} lhtcolri'slost'~};i~ .!~tters·'froni?r:: 'the;asylu.

n January 2, 1864, a month after the South's

devastating defeat at Chattanooga, General

Joseph E. Johnston, the new commander of

the Army of Tennessee, gathered several of

its top officers at his headquarters in

Dalton, Ga., for a meeting born of desper­

ation. Johnston had bes:n sent by President

Jefferson Davis to reorganize the demoralized, undersupplied and

undermanned army of 40,000 men, the only major force standing

between 100,000-plus Federals and the Confederate heartland. Anticipation, anxiety and fascination

no doubt filled the room as a grim-faced, taciturn Irishman rose to address his fel­low officers. Major General Patrick Cleburne was grave. The South had been dealt a crippling blow at Gettysburg in addition to losing Vicksburg and now nearly all of Tennessee. Danger loomed for Richmond and Atlanta. In Cleburne's mind, there was one, and only one, hope for the Confederates-the slaves many of them had fought so hard to keep.

Although there had been glori­ous moments at Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and elsewhere, the Confederacy

had largely been unable to overcome a devastating and obvious battlefield liability throughout the war-Southern soldiers were constantly outnumbered by Union forces. At the time of Johnston's council, the Union had mustered millions of men into uniform compared to the Confederacy's hundreds of thousands. Hopes for support from England and other European powers had faded after Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, and were dead after the defeat in Pennsylvania.

When Cleburne stood to read a propos­al he had been working on for several weeks, he knew he was walking on dan­gerous ground, presenting not just a radi­cal idea, but one that might even get him court-martialed for treason. Nonetheless, in his mind, the only choice left was obvi­ous and logical: "We must immediately commence training a large reserve of the most courageous of our slaves."

The idea of arming slaves had already

::In rl\llT Villi U TI1I..,fl::' nr.TnRU 2007

worked for the North. The 54th Massa­chusetts Infantry had distinguished itself six months earlier at Fort Wagner in South Carolina. But those slaves had been freed. Giving guns to men who were in bondage was altogether different. Cleburne had worked that problem out: He insisted that

Patrick Cleburne was the only Irishman to

become a high·ranking Confederate general.

a bargain be struck, calling for a guarantee of freedom "within a reasonable time to every slave in the South who shall remain true to the Confederacy in this war."

As his comrades stared at him in outrage, disbelief and horror, Cleburne sharpened the choice. "As between the loss of inde­pendence and the loss of slavery, we assume

that every patriot will freely ...give up the negro slave rather than be a slave himself."

Just a few months before johnston's council the Army of Tennessee, if not the entire South, remained confident that the war could be won. Hope had come as recently a'Ii September 20, when these same soldiers defeated Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans and the Army of the Cumberland at Chickamauga, forcing them to retreat back over the border into Tennessee. Lincoln had commented after­ward that Rosencrans seemed "confused and stunned, like a duck hit on the head."

Exhilarated Rebel troops surged toward the fleeing enemy, but their cautious com­mander, General Braxton Bragg, worried that he lacked enough men, supplies and wagons to ensure victory. Instead he placed his men in fortified positions on the hills surrounding Chattanooga, hoping to starve the bluecoats out of the city.

Weeks later, in November, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's troops seized nearby Lookout Mountain and began to claw their way up Missionary Ridge in the face of daunting Confederate artillery fire. Despite the strength of their positions, Bragg's men broke and retreated to Dalton. Davis removed Bragg from com­mand, and on December 27 a Western & Atlantic Railroad train puffed into the Dalton station bearing his successor, "Old Joe" Johnston.

The new general had endured just about as many setbacks as his new command. The trim Virginian had been forced to give up command in the East after being wounded twice at Seven Pines in May 1862. A year later he led a futile effort to

help prevent the fall of Vicksburg. He had long quarreled with President Davis, who feared that Johnston favored retreat more often than advance. But with few options available, Davis placed Johnston in charge of the Army of Tennessee.

Before his war council commenced, Johnston knew that Cleburne had circu­lated his proposal privately among the officers of his division. Fourteen of them, ranging from brigadier generals to colonels, had joined him in signing it.

Johnston had to take the proposal seri­ously because Cleburne was deeply

respected by the other officers. He had fought brilliantly and courageously at Shiloh, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga and elsewhere and had defended the army's right flank during the Battle of Missionary Ridge, repeatedly hurling back the Federal attacks and securing the railroad tunnel under the mountain. When the Rebels atop the ridge pulled out, Cleburne and his men skillfully covered their retreat. They had orders to hold a strongpoint in the hills of Ringgold, Ga., "at all haz­ards," and saved the Confederates from ruin by doing so. Cleburne, who had

Slaves with weapons was a nerve-racking concept to most plantation owners. But this 1859 sketch

shows a planter surveying his armed slaves with approval as fear of a Northern invasion mounted.

was lost in thought. "He was much given to fits of absent mindedness, his dreamy poetic nature seeming to beckon him aWF from realities," said one close friend. i

Apo.ther friend said this "blunt, impa~­sive rnaV only needed the flames of b<lttle .0 k~~dle hrs,~ull features, to sti~he9iPths.9f... hiS sttong"{1ature, to show f . fh a soldl~r

for sto~Jt{leSl,. of heart, for stub rnness of fight, for 'shining valor and forgetfulness

\ of self:rely to be matched." And ye\

, To no one's surprise, Cleburne'sproposal evoked cries ofhorror and outrage ,

become known as "the Stonewall Jackson another observer called him "one of th of the West," received the thanks of the most loyal of men...a man of rare intelli~

C:::~o;n;fe~d;e;r;a~te~C;;o~n~g~re~s~s~f~o~r±h:is~a~ct:io~n~'~:-_I>'e..~n~c~e~t~lu~t~e~x~t~re~mel y guarded in speech." ! en cr, WHy ~ straight:as a~aow,

ebu n~ad. ;y-bigh forehea-(i, hig.h eek­bones, hol~yf cheeks ari'\! a ~m in and

,JllQuth. Hi{{>lack hair ~as 't#!ged with gray, as w Jli.S moustache an~ imperial. His eyes we e'~d~ar, steely gray, usually making him oak cold and distant when he

f'Jothing was guarded about Cleburne's words as he rose to address his peers in Dalton. "We have now been fighting for nearly three years, have spilt much of our best blood and lost, consumed or thrown to the flames an amount of property equal in value to the specie currency of the world,"

he began. "Through some lack in our sys­tem the fruits of our struggles and sacrifices have invariably slipped away from us and left us nothing but long lists of dead and mangled. Instead of standing defiantly on the borders of our territory or harassing those of the enemy we are hemmed in today into less than two thirds of it, and still the enemy menacingly confronts us at every point with superior forces. Our soldiers· can see no end to this state of affairs except in our own exhaustion; hence, instead of rising to the occasion, they are sinking into a fatal apathy, growing weary of hardships and slaughter which promise no results."

Cleburne continued methodically: "In this state of things it is easy to understand why there is a growing belief that some black catastrophe is not far ahead of us, and that unless some extraordinary change is soon made in our condition we must overtake it. The consequences of this condi­tion are showing themselves more plainly every day; restlessness of morals spreading everywhere, manifesting itself in the army in a growing disregard for private rights; desertion spreading to a class of soldiers it

32 rlVll WAR T1M~~ nr.TDAl:1I70n

never dared to tamper with before; mili­tary commissions sinking in the estimation of the soldiers; our supplies failing; our firesides in ruins. If this state continues much longer we must be subjugated."

Cleburne then noted "three great causes operating to destroy us." The first, he said, was "the inferiority of our armies to those of the enemy in point of numbers; second, the poverty of our single source of supply; third, the fact that slavery, from being one of our chief sources of strength at the commencement of the war, has now become, in a military point of view, one of our chief sources of weakness."

President Lincoln, said Cleburne, boasts that "he has already in training an army of one hundred thousand negroes as good as any troops" and from every slice of terri­tory he takes in the South, he adds more. "Slavery is a source of great strength to the enemy by supplying him with more troops but it is a weakness to the Confederacy now." Once slavery was disturbed, even by a cavalry raid, he explained, "the whites can no longer, with safety to their property, openly sympathize. The fear of their slaves is continually haunting them and, from silence and apprehension, many of them soon learn to wish the war stopped on any terms. The next stage is to take the oath to

save property and they become dead to us, if not open enemies." The slaves, said Cleburne, provide the enemy with "an omnipresent spy system, pointing out our valuable men to the enemy, revealing our positions, purposes and resources and yet acting so safely and secretly that there is no means to guard against it."

Thus the Irishman dared to tell the truth about the slave system-that the supposedly happy, contented and loyal blacks were spying on their masters for the benefit of the invaders and dropping the mask of loyalty as soon as Union troops came in to set them free. His cold gray eyes also looked straight at the unpleasant truth that so many Southerners sought to avoid-that most of the soldiers who were AWOL or deserters would not return to duty, despite all appeals to their manhood and patriotism. Even if forced back into service, they would be "unwill­ing and discontented soldiers." Where,

then, could the Confederacy obtain the thousands of fresh troops that it must have to survive?

To this point, Cleburne's fellow officers listened to his appeal in agreement, for they knew he was telling the truth about the low morale and bitterness in the ranks. The officers knew that every day soldiers were slipping out to go home and look after their families, which were facing hungel; insecurity or even destitution­with no relief in sight.

They also knew that the Army of Tennessee must have about twice the num­ber of troops that it currently possessed to have a realistic chance against the jugger-

Many Rebel officials, induding Secretary of

War James Seddon, opposed Cleburne's plan.

naut of Maj. Gen. WiJJiam T. Sherman's invaders, who would start their march to Atlanta in the spring. Lee faced similar odds against Grant, who would open his drive on Richmond at the same time.

Cleburne argued that his plan would "enable us to have armies numerically superior to those of the North and a reserve of any size we might think necessary.... It would restore confidence in an early ter­mination of the war"-with victory and independence for the South.

Cleburne also pointed out that if "we arm and train the negro and make him fight for the country in her hour of dire distress," then "we should set him and his whole race ...free." He stated, "We must immediately make his J;Ilarriage and

parental relations sacred in the eyes of the law and forbid their sale."

He then addressed several questions that he knew would surface against his radical idea. "Will the slaves fight?" he asked rhe­torically. "The experience of this war has been so far that half-trained negroes have fought as bravely as many other half-trained Yankees. It is said that an army of negroes cannot be spared from the fields. A suffi­cient number of slaves is now administering to luxury alone to supply the place of all we need .... It is said slaves will not work after they are free. We think necessity and wise legislation will compel them to labor for a living. It is said it will cause terrible excite­ment and some dis-affection from our cause. Excitement is far preferable to the apathy which now exists and disaffection will not long be among the fighting men. It is said slavery is all we are fighting for and if we give it up we give up all. Even if this were true, which we deny, slavery is not all our enemies are fighting for. It is merely the pre­tense to establish sectional superiority and a more centralized form of government and to deprive us of our rights and liberties."

In closing, Cleburne admitted that his plan might "be imperfect, but in all human probability it would give us·our independence." He pleaded for immediate action because "negroes will require much training; training will require time, and there is danger that this concession to common sense may come too late."

To no one's surprise, Cleburne's plan evoked cries of horror and

.. outrage from some of the gener­als, who had listened to it in dis­

belief. Brigadier General Patton Anderson denounced it as "revolting to Southern sen­timent, Southern pride; Southern honor." The idea of placing guns in the hands of slaves and freeing their families ran count­er to all the ingrained beliefs of many Southerners, who considered the institution essential to preserving white supremacy. As these people saw it, they had seceded to protect that supremacy; why give it up now? Cleburne's answer was that the vic­torious Yankees would abolish slavery anyway; with his plan, the South would at least keep its independence.

OCTOBER 2007 CIVIL WAR TIMES 33

j 1

?" ?~-.~~ ~~~~~ ­. ~;;~'""""'-"'"'"""'~-~- ~~~~--

Fifer Tony Wetters served in Company B, 3rd Florida Infantry. A former comrade said that he

"marched with the 'Boys in Gray' until the close of the war, always cheerful and true to duty!'

"What are we to do?""Anderson asked Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk, commander of Confederate troops in Mississippi and east Louisiana. "If this thing is once openly proposed to the army," Anderson wrote, "the total disintegration of the army will follow in a fortnight." He added, "I will not attempt to describe my feeling on being confronted by a project so startling in its character-,and not the least painful of the emotions... is that it met with favor by others beside the other in high station then present." Anderson dreaded that publicizing Cleburne's proposal would "bring down the universal indignation of the Southern people and the Southern sol­diers upon the head of at least one of our bravest and most accomplished officers."

Equally horrified, Maj. Gen. William Bate commented: "I thought I knew the temper of the troops and felt it was an entering wedge which, driven in these dis­maying times, would rift and scatter our army, defeating the very object it proposed to secure. I regarded ...the seductive argu­ment as the rose beneath which the ser­pent of abolition is coiled. Pluck it and you lay bare a political hydra, the defor­mity of which is shocking to contemplate. Its proposition contravenes the principles upon which I have ...acted... [and] would result in breaking down all barriers between the black and white races. "

Captain Irving A. Buck, the assis­

. tant adjutant general in Cleburne's division, called the daring proposal "one of the

most remarkable documents of the war." A close friend of Cleburne's, Buck warned him "that the slaveholders were totally unprepared to consider such a radical measure .... It would raise a storm of indig­nation against you." Furthermore, Buck expressed fears that advocating the plan would destroy Cleburne's bright prospects of being promoted to command a corps, with the rank of lieutenant general. The captain was prophetic in his concern. Cleburne, one of the most capable generals on either side in either theater, was never promoted beyond the rank of major general, and only briefly received command of a corps. No official reason was ever given

for his lack of advancement" even while inferior officers were being promoted all around him.

Cleburne replied to Buck that "a crisis was upon the South" and he felt it was his duty to bring this before the authorities regardless of its effect on his own career. "I would cheerfully undertake command of a negro division in this emergency," the general declared. His worst fate, he said, would be "a court martial and cashier­ing," in which case he would enlist as a

private in his old Arkansas regiment and "do his duty in the ranks."

Cleburne had hoped that his plan could be presented directly to President Davis for action, but General Johnston decided against forwarding it to Richmond on the grounds that it was a political, not a mili­tary, matter. Major General W.H.T. Walker, who violently opposed Cleburne's plan, sent a copy to Davis in hopes of crushing it. The concept of arming slaves stirred up a storm inside the inner circle in

34 CIVIL WAR TIMES OCTOBER 2007

_. .-,---~- ,. ~_"," __-:.,""._"~ .. ",,,"""::--·c

, _~ 1 ~'t'_ft"~"~

Richmond, although the Southern people never knew anything about it. Bragg, who was now the president's chief military adviser-and still smarting over his removal from command of the Army of Tennessee--eommented: "Great sensation IS being produced by the Emancipation project of Hardee, Cheatham, Cleburne and Co. It will kill them." His remarks linking Lt. Gen. William Hardee and Maj. Gen. Benjamin Cheatham to Cleburne illustrate his belief that those generals showed some sympathy with the idea.

Davis, fearing an uproar among the populace if it ever found out about the idea of arming slaves, issued an order sup­pressing all copies of Cleburne's letter and barring any discussion of it. Such contro­versy, he feared, would produce only "dis­couragement, distraction and dissension."

Secretary of War James A. Seddon relayed the president's disapproval to Johnston, who obediently passed it along to the officers who had read or heard the revolutionary proposal. "The agitation and controversy which must spring from the presentation of such views by officers high in public confidence are to be deeply deprecated," Seddon declared, adding, "Such views can only jeopard among the states and people unity and harmony when successful cooperation and the achieve­ment of independence are essential."

Accepting his rebuff like a good soldier, Cleburne kept silent and turned his atten­tion to personal affairs. Hardee, his good friend and admirer, chose Cleburne to be the best man at his wedding. On January 13, at a plantation near Mobile in south Alabama, Hardee married Mary Foreman Lewis, the daughter of a wealthy planter.

At that wedding the reserved Irishman and met the well-connected maid of honor, Sue

Tarleton, and fell in love with her at first Juld sight. A few months later they were 'avis engaged. They could not be married ided immediately, however. The idyllic inter­the lude was rudely interrupted by the Union's

nili­ preparations for a massive attack on the -LT. Army of Tennessee, and Cleburne quickly 'ne's returned to duty in Georgia. 5 of Through the late spring and summer

Sherman's juggernaut pushed the smaller Confederate army through the mountains

of north Georgia While General Johnston military service," and the first black stubbornly combined defensive maneuvers Confederate soldiers paraded in the streets and hard fighting to check the Yankees' of Richmond. A few weeks later Rich­drive on Atlanta. Cleburne, as always, dis­ mond fell-and then the Confederacy. tinguished himself in combat. Cleburne did not live to see his idea car­

Desperate to save Atlanta and distrust­ ried out by the Congress-albeit in a futile ful of Johnston's repeated retreats, Davis gesture that obviously was too little and removed him from command on July 17 too late. He was killed, at 36, while coura­and replaced him with an aggressive, ambi­ geously leading his troops against

t tious young Kentuckian from the Army of entrenched Federals in the Battle' of Northern Virginia, Lt. Gen. John Bell Franklin on November 30, 1864, during Hood. The belligerent Hood, who had Hood's disastrous attempt to capture long favored an offensive, made a series of Nashville and recover Tennessee. Presi­attacks on the much larger body of invaders dent Davis paid him this tribute: "Around

Cleburne thickly lay the gallant men who, in his desperate assault, followed him with the implicit confidence that in another army was given to Stonewall Jackson; and in the one case, as in the other, a vacancy was created which could never be filled."

"Major General Cleburne had been dis­tinguished for his admirable conduct upon many fields, and his loss, at this moment, was irreparable," Hood said in his mem­oirs. He added: "He was a man of equally quick perception and strong character and was, especially in one respect, in advance of many of our people. He possessed the bold­ness and the wisdom to earnestly advo­

Black troops, such as those who fought under cate... the freedom of the negro and the the banner of the 1st Kansas Colored Regiment, enrollment of the young and able-bodied had already proved their worth in the North. men of that race. This stroke of policy

and· additional source of strength to the but could not succeed in saving Atlanta. armies would, in my opinion, have given The city fell to Sherman in early September. .. us our independence."

Only when faced with this crushing Although Davis had ordered all copies of loss, which portended the Confederacy's the Cleburne memorial destroyed, one

, I wouldc~eerfuny undertake commandofa negro division in this emergency' -MAJ. GEN. PATRICK CLEBURNE

ultimate defeat, did the authorities in copy remained in the possession of a Richmond finally realize that Cleburne Cleburne aide, Major Calhoun Benham. had proposed the one sure way of raising After Benham's death, the letter was found enough fresh troops to prevent the South's and went to the War Department. It finally subjugation. In November 1864, the Con­ came to light in 1898, when it was pub­federate Congress debated a bill to enlist lished in a volume of the Official Records some negro troops-but still avoided the of the Union and Confederate Armies in idea of freeing the slaves. the War of the Rebellion. In that docu­

At long last on March 13, 1865, the ment lay the mind of a man who was Congress enacted a statute authorizing the before his time, and a plan that very well president to enlist some slaves "to perform could have changed history. _