Expert: Paul Rabe - 9/22/2009

Question
In the above movie a private named John Smith is killed at Sudrow's Wells and is buried with confederate military honors. This actor is played by Rudy Bowman. He is attended at the funeral by Sgt. Tyree, played by Ben Johnson.

In the outer banks of my memory I remember a movie or perhaps some lost footage where Pvt. Smith is General Roan Clay and Tyree is a confederate Lt. they are let out of a prison camp by John Wayne under the condition they join the Union calvary. Am I dreaming this, or is it truly something I do remember?

Answer
I'm going to presume you're asking if Rudy Bowman and Ben Johnson were ever in a different film with Wayne, in which Wayne plays a Union officer offering prison release to the characters played by Bowman and Johnson.

The best place to start such a search would be

www.imdb.com/name-search

which allows you to search for films common to any number of people in any specific kind of work. For instance, John Belushi was in a film directed by Steven Spielberg AND in one where Spielberg was an actor.

My first search found that these three did, indeed, work together in _She Wore a Yellow Ribbon_, but not in any other films. I thus did a search for only Bowman and Johnson, figuring your memory might have added Wayne by mistake. Again, _SWaYR_ was the only film they were in together. Then I did a search for Wayne and Bowman, for similiar reasons. Same result! Finally I did a search for Wayne and Johnson together. These two were a little more prolific, appearing in six films other than _SWaYR_. Amongst them was _The Undefeated_,

www.imdb.com/title/tt0065150

in which (according to the brief synopsis), Wayne portrayed "ex-Union Colonel John Henry Thomas" in a time period "After the Civil War." I don't know if this is the film you're thinking of, but it's the closest I could find for the actors you mention.

The only film I can think of in which Wayne starred as a Union calvary officer during the Civil War is _The Horse Soldiers_, which MIGHT have had a scene similiar to what you desribe

www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=3658&category=Full%20Synopsis

Other than to suggest you look at Wayne's filmography

www.imdb.com/name/nm0000078

I can offer no further help.