Confederate soldier, born in Co Cork, Ireland. A soldier in the British army, he emigrated to America and prospered as a druggist, and later as a lawyer, in Helena, AR. One of the toughest division commanders in Confederate service, he fought at Shiloh, Perryville, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga, and was killed in battle at Franklin, TN.
Patrick Ronayne Cleburne (March 16 or March 17, 1828 – November 30, 1864) was a major general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, killed at the Battle of Franklin.
Early life
Cleburne was born in Ovens, County Cork, Ireland, the second son of Dr. Joseph Cleburne, a solid, middle-class physician.
Three years later, Cleburne bought his discharge and emigrated to the United States with two brothers and a sister.
Service in the Confederate Army
When the secession crisis broke out, Cleburne sided firmly with the Southern states.
Cleburne served at the Battle of Shiloh, the Battle of Richmond (Kentucky), where he was wounded in the face, and the Battle of Perryville. After the Army of Tennessee retreated to its namesake state in late 1862, Cleburne was promoted to division command and served at the Battle of Stones River, where his division advanced three miles as it routed the Union right wing and drove it back to the Nashville Pike and its final line of defense.
During the campaigns of 1863 in Tennessee, General Cleburne became more and more outspoken about the incompetence of the commander of the army, General Braxton Bragg, which may have retarded his advancement within the army. During this time Cleburne and his soldiers played a role at the Confederate victory at the Battle of Chickamauga with a rare night assault and probably saved the Army of Tennessee from utter destruction by holding off a much larger United States Army at both Tunnel Hill on Missionary Ridge at the Battle of Chattanooga and at the Battle of Ringgold Gap in northern Georgia. Cleburne and his troops received an official thanks from the Confederate Congress for their actions during this campaign.
Cleburne's strategic utilization of terrain, ability to hold ground where others failed, and his ability to use his smaller force to stymie the movements of the enemy earned him his fame during this time and gained him the nickname "Stonewall of the West."
It became obvious to Cleburne that the Confederate States were losing the war because of the drain on manpower and resources they were facing.
Death and legacy
Prior to the campaigning season of 1864, Cleburne became engaged to Susan Tarleton of Mobile, Alabama. Their marriage was never to be as Cleburne was killed during an ill conceived assault, which Cleburne opposed, on Union fortifications at the Battle of Franklin, just south of Nashville, Tennessee, on November 30, 1864.
Cleburne's remains were laid to rest at St. John's Church near Mount Pleasant, Tennessee, where they remained for six years. Various sources claim Maple Hill Cemetery, Magnolia Cemetery, and Evergreen Cemetery in Helena.)
Some southern counties and cities are named after Patrick Cleburne, including:
Cleburne County, Alabama Cleburne County, Arkansas City of Cleburne, Texas
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