Review of Ride with the Devil (1999) by Charles R — 02 Feb 2004

Ride With the Devil is plagued with a poor script, stereotyped characters and historical inaccuracies. As a historian, the latter is my main concern. Although the film makes no pretense at being a documentary, the "artistic license" taken with actual persons and events goes far beyond acceptable limits.

Some of the most glaring errors:

In addition to mistakenly using brass-framed Remington revolvers, which did not exist, many are shown with brass-framed Colts. Although a few such knock-offs were produced by the Confederacy, there is no evidence that any were ever used by the guerrillas. Showing Federals using them is unforgivable.

Too many lever-action rifles are shown for the time and location. Near the end of the movie, Roedel is shown with a lever-action rifle that has a brass frame. The only such weapons available at the time were Henry rifles, which had an iron frame.

Few, if any, guerrillas wore their hair longer than about six inches. No known photos show any of them with hair below their shoulders, not do any contemporary descriptions.

In the movie, some guerrillas are wearing overshirts with plaid or striped patterns. The only known period descriptions or photos are of solid colored shirts, often decorated with ornately embroidered designs.

Quantrill is shown wearing a uniform bearing the three stars of a Confederate Colonel, although it is well documented that (1) his rank was Captain, and (2) he did not wear a uniform at that time.

Quantrill says the Kansas City prison collapse occurred as the women held there slept. It collapsed in mid-afternoon, and all contemporary accounts indicate the women were up and about.

Quantrill was frequently described by his contemporaries as being very well groomed. Other than a mustache, he was usually clean-shaven, although he sometimes wore a neatly trimmed full beard. During the Lawrence raid, he had only a mustache. In the movie, he is shown with long shaggy hair, mustache and a goatee.

The guerrillas attacked Lawrence at dawn (about 5:30 a.m.), yet there are many fully dressed townspeople on the street, and businesses are open.

The guerrillas are shown leaving Lawrence with four wagons loaded with plunder. They took no wagons, and little loot taken was limited to what they could carry on horseback.

On their retreat from Lawrence, some guerrillas fought a running rear-guard action against the pursuing Federals, but did not fight dismounted as shown.

The Federal troops pursuing the guerrillas on the retreat from Lawrence did not carry guidons patterned after the U.S. flag.

When Roedel and Holt are just recovering from the wounds they received on the retreat from the Aug. 21, 1863 Lawrence raid, one character says that Quantrill has gone to Kentucky (He did not go until Jan, 1865.) and that Anderson (killed Oct 26, 1864), Clement (killed Dec. 13, 1866?over a year and a half after the end of the war) and Thrailkill (who survived the war) were all dead.

Near the end of the movie, it is implied that the war has not yet ended, but it is stated that Quantrill had been killed. He was mortally wounded on May 10, 1865 and died on June 6, 1865, after the end of the war.

In addition to these major mistakes, there were many more relatively inconsequential ones.

NOTE: I was present in the Independence, Mo. bookstore (which specialized in Civil War) when the film?s so-called "historical consultant" (whose sole qualification apparently was having written a book on 19th century quilts) purchased books that would have given her all the above information except for that concerning the firearms.