Cleburne's is the most famous, however, his idea was not formed in vaccum. He was only stating what many other Confederate officers had been thinking for several years. It was Brig. Gen. Robert S. Ewell who brought up the idea in 1861 when Jefferson Davis asked him what was the one measure that would secure the defense of Southern independence, he said, "Emancipating the slaves and arming them." Tasker Gantt to Henry Hunt, May 19, 1886, Henry Jackson Hunt Papers, LC. & a letter to his niece in the summer of 1862, Richard S. Ewell to Lizzie Ewell, July 20, 1862, Richard S. Ewell papers, LC. It is also found in "Richard S. Ewell A Soldiers Life", 1998; and "The War between the Union and the Confederacy and Its Lost Opportunities", 1905.

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David Upton