On an additional note, the idea wasnt original to Cleburne, it had been poping up in southern newspapers in 1863, one who pushed it was a correspondent known as CULLODEN, who turned out to be General Thomas Hindman, Cleburne's old friend. My theory is that after Tunnel Hill and Ringgold Gap, Cleburne was golden and his old friend, who was more like mud at that point, got him to push the idea.

Lee