The Raid

With a rebel yell, I cried more more more.

"This is a true story...it began on the night of September 26 1864, in a Union prison stockade at Plattsburgh, New York, not many miles from the Canadian border."

Tho director Hugo Fregonese's The Raid opens with the above written statement, it's not entirely accurate. Further research into what became known as "The St. Albans Raid" is required if you want the complete and unembellished story. However, The Raid is in structure and plot significantly in line with what happened back there in 1864. Lifting from the story entitled "Affair At St. Albans" by Herbert Ravenal Sass, The Raid is about seven Confederate prison escapees who infiltrate the community of St. Albans and plot a second front. ...

Civil War Western that takes place a dozen miles from the Canadian border

In September-October, 1864, a Confederate officer (Van Heflin) coordinates a group of 21 young soldiers, mostly ex-POWs, for an attack on a prosperous town in northern Vermont. His motive isnt just revenge, but to fund the Confederacy with desperately needed funds, as well as to divert Union troops from the South.

The Raid (1954) was loosely based on the St. Albans Raid, the northernmost engagement of the Civil War, led by 21 years-old Lt. Bennett H. Young and organized by George Sanders, a Montreal-based agent of the Confederacy. Heflin (at the age of 45 during shooting) basically plays a conglomerate of these two real-life people.

Its great to see so...