Stonewall of the West

Stonewall of the West: Patrick Cleburne and the Civil War. By Craig L. Symonds. Modern War Studies. (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1997. Pp. xii, 322.)

Since his death at the Battle of Franklin in November 1864, Patrick Cleburne has become a hero of the Confederacy and a fascinating topic for biographers of the era. An Irish immigrant, veteran of the British 41st Regiment, and Confederate nationalist, Cleburne sticks out as a different character within the Confederate officer corps. Instead of a man coming from the Southern aristocracy bent on defending the institution of slavery, Cleburne truly believed in Southern nationalism and enlisted in the Confederate forces to defend it. Despite his status as an immigrant and his controversial proposal to arm slaves in January 1864, Cleburne garnered the praise of the Confederate high command as Robert E. Lee described him as “a meteor shining from a clouded sky” and Jefferson Davis gave him the moniker the “Stonewall of the West” (p. 158).

Although an interesting and important figure to the Confederate war effort in the west, Craig L. Symonds, a professor emeritus of history at the U.S. Naval Academy, attempts to strip away some of the mythology that has developed around Cleburne since his death. He starts with a sketch of Cleburne’s early life in Ireland. Born into a minority Protestant class that dominated Ireland at the time, Cleburne’s early life was marked by tragedy as his mother died when he was nineteen months old and his father passed away when he was fifteen years old. After serving a short time in the British army occupying Ireland, Cleburne immigrated to the United States in 1849 at the age of twenty-one. After landing in New Orleans, Cleburne made his way to Helena, Arkansas and worked hard to successfully increase his fortunes. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Cleburne, who had developed an understanding—although a flawed one—of Southern nationalism, quickly joined his neighbors in secession.

Naturally, Symonds focuses the majority of his work on Cleburne’s experience in the Civil War from his first fight at Shiloh through his death at Franklin. Unlike previous Cleburne biographers who argue that he deserved a corps command by 1864, Symonds believes Cleburne achieved his proper rank of major general in command of a division. Cleburne’s reticence and his unwillingness to contribute to military discussions, Symonds argues, most likely prevented his ascension above this rank. In addition, Symonds contends that Cleburne’s commander, William J. Hardee, may have further stifled his rise in the ranks, partly to prevent losing Cleburne as a division commander and perhaps recognizing that he “lacked the spark of independent initiative” a corps commander required (p. 223).

Yet, Cleburne grew into one of the most respected and liked division commanders in the Army of Tennessee. His division developed a reputation as a hard-hitting combat unit, which many historians contend was one of the finest units in the Army of Tennessee. This reputation turned Cleburne into the Confederate hero he has become since the end of the war.

Although considered a Southern nationalist, Symonds argues that Cleburne had developed a misunderstood and romanticized sense of the region. His Dalton, Georgia, proposal to arm slaves in January 1864 reflects this idea. Cleburne fully embraced Southern independence, but failed to recognize the important connection between the institution of slavery and Southern nationalism for many Southerners. This controversial proposition also contributed to his lack of promotion prior to his death.

Despite being just one of many Cleburne biographies, Symonds provides an in-depth examination of Cleburne’s life. This includes employing letters held by some of Cleburne’s still living relatives, many which most likely were unavailable to previous historians. In the process, Symonds develops a well-written and comprehensive look at Cleburne’s life from his first twenty-one years in Ireland, through his Civil War service, and ultimately to his death at Franklin. This work should act as an example for others interested in writing a biography on an important figure from the Civil War.

Mike Burns Texas Christian University

Craig L. Symonds. Stonewall of the West: Patrick Cleburne and the Civil War. Modern War Studies. Lawrence, KA: University Press of Kansas, 1997. xi + 332 pgs.

Recent evaluations of Patrick Cleburne have appraised him as an excellent if undervalued general, an effective and resolute combat leader, and a potential savior of the Confederate cause. These themes are all found in Craig L. Symonds’ 1997 biography Stonewall of the West: Patrick Cleburne and the Civil War.

Patrick Cleburne was born into a large, middle class, protestant family in Cork Country, Ireland on March 16, 1828. He spent three years in the British Army, where he mastered the art of war as a common soldier. In late 1849 he bought his discharge from the army, and like many other Irishmen and women emigrated to the then United States, sailing with two brothers and a sister. He eventually found himself in Helena, Arkansas, where despite a lack of extended formal education he became a successful lawyer, a brawling friend of local politician Thomas Hindman, and an accepted member of Helena’s aristocracy. In the months leading up to secession, Cleburne’s social status and military experience was recognized when he was elected captain of the local secessionist volunteers, the Yell Rifles, and quickly rose to command his own Confederate regiment and brigade by early 1862. Cleburne and his brigade fought their first major engagement at Shiloh, where one of his regiments suffered the fourth highest casualty rate of any regiment in the entire war. He was soon promoted to major general and division commander in Braxton Bragg’s army, and at Stone’s River, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and Atlanta Cleburne’s division was in the thick of the fiercest fighting in the West. It would eventually earn a reputation as perhaps the best division in Army of Tennessee, and Cleburne himself would earn the title “Stonewall of the West” for his resolute combat leadership and effectiveness. It was in homage to this title that Cleburne lost his life while leading his division on foot during an ill-fated charge at the Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864.

Symonds portrays Cleburne as quiet, emotionally enclosed, and awkward in social situations, particularly those involving women; but a confident and resolute general, who was likely one of the Confederacy’s best field commanders. Though he deservingly escalated through the ranks throughout the war based on his outstanding skill, the most notable episode of Cleburne’s career arrested his elevation farther than the rank of major general and division commander. Cleburne was thoroughly engrossed in his assumed identity as an Arkansan and Confederate; however, perhaps because he was not reared in racially dominated southern society, he harbored no allegiance to the southern slave system. In response to the Confederacy’s declining manpower resources, Cleburne proposed in January 1864 that slaves be offered their freedom if they served in the Confederate military. His proposal was of course rejected and censored because it violated Southern societal norms, and Cleburne never received another promotion.

The critical historian should note that in Stonewall of the West a theme more profound than a simple biography and perhaps unintentionally referenced by the author may be found. Cleburne’s journey from Irishman to staunchly Arkansan warrior, or from foreign immigrant to Confederate national, well represents an immigrant’s tale common of the Civil War era. Many Irishmen, Germans, Italians, and others immigrated to an American nation embroiled by a devastating Civil War; and strikingly enough, as they assimilated into the culture of their new homes across the continent many of them sided with their new neighbors on the issue of secession. That is not to say that most immigrants became Confederate generals if they migrated southward, or that most who immigrated to northern cities like New York supported abolition. Symonds notes that, “Each of the Cleburne brothers reflected the outlook of the society in which he lived: William in Wisconsin and Joseph in Indiana were for Lincoln and the Union; Robert in Kentucky hoped his state could survive a precarious neutrality; Patrick in Arkansas was for states’ rights. (p.44)” The Cleburne brothers each donned the colors of their new home states, particularly Patrick; in that subtle point may be found a larger statement on identity, immigration, and assimilation in the Civil War - that immigrants often assumed the political identity of the majority population in their adoptive homes. It is interesting as well to note that Patrick Cleburne supported Arkansas, not the Southern institution of slavery, which then allowed for his willingness to abandon the ultimate right of the southern states, in order to potentially save his homeland from those who he saw as foreign invaders.

All things accounted for, Symonds’ biography is a solid work, and leaves readers with a true appreciation not simply of Cleburne as an effective general, but of an immigrant finding his way a turbulent land, a visionary willing to abandon tradition in favor of success, a warrior with an assumed identity for which he was willing to die, and a truly interesting man of passion whose life and potential was cut tragically short by a conflict infamous for doing the same to the lives of many other Americans.

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Stonewall of the West: Patrick Cleburne and the Civil War. By Craig L. Symonds. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1997.

Born in Country Cork, Ireland and an immigrant to the United States, Patrick Cleburne was from the archetypical Confederate general officer of slave holding gentry birth. Regardless of this fact, Cleburne skyrocketed through the Confederate ranks to become one of the most effective major generals in the western theatre if not the entire Confederate army. In Stonewall of the West: Patrick Cleburne and the Civil War Craig L. Symonds explores the life of Cleburne and why he ended up fighting for a Southern cause he seemed to only scarcely understand at times. Fairly neutral on the idea of slavery Cleburne was one of the first, and only, Confederates to advocate the arming and freeing of slaves if they pledged their loyalty to the Confederacy. Though Confederate leadership quickly masked Cleburne’s suggestion least the Confederate populace turn against one of its most successful generals, Cleburne’s recommendation highlights what Symonds argues was one of Cleburne’s most important qualities: loyalty.

Cleburne moved to the United States at the height of the Irish potato famine. Descended from a middling Anglo-Irish family, Cleburne secured his immigration to the United States with access to far more resources than many of his Catholic Irish contemporaries. Eventually settling in Arkansas, Cleburne worked diligently to establish himself on the community and frontier politics. These business and political connections provided Cleburne with the associations and relationship needed to secure a commission as an officer once Arkansas seceded from the Union. Additionally, as one of the only members of the community with military experience (a corporal in the British infantry) the soldiers under Cleburne’s command soon proved far more efficient in their drill and training than their fellow Arkansans. These facts combined to bring Cleburne to the attention of the Arkansas and Confederate military leadership and Cleburne soon became a general officer in charge of his own brigade.

The formations first major combat action occurred during the disorganized first day assault by Confederate forces at Shiloh. Even in the midst of scattered and sporadic fighting Cleburne managed to keep control of his formation longer than most. When command and control did finally break down the superior training and preparation by Cleburne’s units allowed them to each carry on their own fight independently.

Cleburne’s success in the face of so many others failure earned him a promotion to command of his own division. Cleburne’s division, through its hard fighting and determination, soon became a living legend and Cleburne the nickname of the “Stonewall of the West” placing him in the Confederate pantheon with Stonewall Jackson himself. The various commanders of the Army of the Tennessee regularly placed Cleburne’s division where the action was most dire. While this did win battles or mitigate defeats it also bleed dry one of the most successful formations the Confederate Army possessed in the western theatre.

Cleburne’s early forays into politics also appeared during his time with the Confederate army when Cleburne became implicated in the movement to get Braxton Bragg removed from command. Cleburne himself was not a very political general but his near naivety regarding politics and opinionated nature meant that he often got caught up in squabbles that he might otherwise have avoided or taken a different side on if he’d properly read the situation. Indeed as good as Cleburne could read a battlefield, he was conversely bad at reading a political minefield. Cleburne at times did not really understand the society or culture he fought for, but he knew that this society had taken him in at the most desperate time of his life and helped him make a home. Cleburne fought for the South because it had done him a favor, and he would return that favor even if it cost him his life; which it did. Symond’s Stonewall of the West is an important book for understanding one of the Confederacy’s most interesting personalities.

Stonewall of the West: Patrick Cleburne and the Civil War. By Craig L. Symonds. Lawrence: The University Press of Kansas, 1997.

Craig L. Symonds, in Stonewall of the West: Patrick Cleburne and the Civil War, chronicles the life and Civil War service of Patrick Cleburne. Symonds portrays Cleburne as a man simply out to perform his duty in the war. Patrick Ronayn Cleburne was born in County Cork, Ireland at his family’s estate of Bride Park on March 16, 1828. Born into a fairly wealthy family, Cleburne’s father was a doctor and his mother came from a very affluent family. When only two years of age Cleburne’s mother passed away. Later his father remarried and Cleburne had a total of seven siblings. After three years of schooling, at the age of fifteen his father died. Patrick Cleburne forced to quit school, he then became an apprentice for a colleague of his fathers. When the potato famine struck Ireland in the winter of 1845-1846 the doctor was forced to cut costs and therefore had to end the apprenticeship with Cleburne. With this Cleburne enlisted in Her Majesty’s 41^st Regiment of foot in 1846. In 1849 his family decided to move to the United States in hopes of escaping the hardships that they faced in Ireland. Having recently turned twenty one, he purchased his discharge from the army with an inheritance that he had recently received from the remnant of his mother’s original wedding dowry.

Patrick Cleburne arrived in America on Christmas Day 1849 along with two of his brothers and one sister. He took a steamer to Cincinnati where he secured a job as a clerk in a drugstore. The next spring he found a job in Helena, Arkansas managing a drugstore for two doctors who had recently purchased it. Cleburne sought to work his way up in society and Dr. Charles Nash, a co-owner of the drugstore, sponsored him in the polite society of Helena. In December 1851 he bought out Dr. Grant’s interest in the store and became a partner with Dr. Nash. By 1853 he decided to study law and was later admitted to the Arkansas bar. During his study of law Cleburne became involved in politics. First he sympathized with the Whig Party but when it began to fade he became a Democrat even publicly speaking for them with his new friend Thomas Hindman.

When the Civil War broke out Cleburne had committed himself to Arkansas. “During his ten years in Helena, he had become more of an Arkansan than he had ever been either Irishman or an American.” (44) The militia that Cleburne helped to organize, the Archibald Yell, became part of the 1^st Arkansas Infantry, later the 15th Arkansas. He imposed high standards not only on the men in the ranks but also accepted that the counterpart to discipline was responsibility and held himself and his officers to equally high standard and was elected colonel of his regiment. Then in March 1862 he became a brigadier general.

In April 1862 at Shiloh in his first exercise of command leadership in a major battle he led his command to near annihilation. Though they had fought hard, his response to nearly every tactical circumstance was to attack. That fall Cleburne and his men went into Kentucky. At the Battle of Richmond a minnié ball pierced his left cheek and exited his open mouth, once it began to swell he was forced to leave the battlefield as he could not speak. Yet here Cleburne demonstrated both tactical innovation and insight showing his growth as a commander. In December 1862 he was elevated to major general and led a division at the Battle of Stones River. At Chattanooga Cleburne’s division held the only part of the Confederate line that was not routed. For his actions in his division protecting the supply train of the Army of Tennessee at Ringgold Gap, Georgia, Cleburne won the praise of Bragg, a resolution of thanks from the Confederate Congress, and even a Union commander described that Cleburne’s Division “was reputed as the best in Bragg’s army.”

In January 1864 Cleburne developed a proposal to arm the slaves. He claimed that slavery should be sacrificed to offset the South’s numerical inadequacy in manpower. His proposal proved very unpopular. He went on to lead his division throughout the Atlanta campaign. At the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee Hood placed Cleburne’s division at the center of the charge he ordered. Before the November 1862 battle Cleburne told his commander “I will either take the enemy’s works or fall in the attempt.” (6) Cleburne lost his life that day attempting to carry out his orders.

Symonds has written a captivating account of the life of Patrick Cleburne. Though Symonds does seem partial to Cleburne he does not take this to the extreme and definitely points out his flaws as well as his strengths.

Stonewall of the West: Patrick Cleburne and the Civil War. By Craig L. Symonds. (Kansas University Press, Lawrence Kansas 1997)

On the warm Indian summer day of November 30, 1864, twenty thousand Confederates stepped off in the last great charge of the American Civil War at Franklin Tennessee. Leading his division in that charge was Major General Patrick Ronayne Cleburne, an Irishman turned Southerner still smarting from the rebuff by his commander for his alleged shortcomings the day before. After his horse was shot from under him Cleburne continued leading his men on foot until a single bullet pierced his heart, leaving him dead on the field of Franklin. That is how the life of Patrick Cleburne ended, but before he died at the age of thirty-six he lead a remarkable life, the subject of Stonewall of the West.

In his biography of this often enigmatic Confederate figure, Craig Symonds succeeds in painting a clear, straightforward touching portrait of a man who simply saw his duty and did it. Patrick Ronayne Cleburne was born on March 16, 1828 at his family’s estate of Bride Park in County Cork, Ireland. Unlike most of the surrounding residents of southern Ireland, Patrick Cleburne was born into an affluent Protestant family. His father was a physician, the only one in Ovens Township west of Cork, and he had provided for his family well. But in the fall of 1843 Dr. Cleburne suddenly passed away, and Patrick moved away from home, apprenticing himself to a druggist, one of his father’s colleagues. This arrangement worked out well until the winter of 1845-46 when the potato famine struck Ireland in full fury.

His benefactor was unable to continue Patrick’s apprenticeship, and Cleburne decided to enlist in Her Majesty’s 41^st Regiment of Foot in February 1846. After two years of service, Cleburne was promoted corporal, but he never fully took to army life. In the summer of 1849 several members of his family informed him of their decision to sail for America to make a new start.

Cleburne bought his discharge with some money from his father’s estate in September 1849 and promptly sailed for New Orleans, arriving on Christmas Day, 1849. The young Irishman sailed to Cincinnati, Ohio where he found work as a clerk. However, in the spring he was made aware of a job opening to manage the clinic of two doctors in Helena Arkansas. Traveling to Arkansas, Cleburne was awarded the position and he quickly endeavored to adjust to his new surroundings. He undertook a program of self-improvement that included trying to shed his Irish brogue and learning to ride. In 1854 he met Thomas Hindman, a local lawyer and Democratic politician with whom Cleburne became fast friends. Patrick Cleburne sympathized with the Whig Party, but when that political body began to fade, he joined Hindman as a Democrat. Cleburne also began reading law and was admitted to the Arkansas bar. Cleburne was content to practice law, though he was engaged with Hindman in a gunfight against several assailants in May 1856. Though he was wounded in the fray, Cleburne made a full recovery.

When war broke out in 1861 there was little doubt which way Cleburne would go. He held a deep loyalty to Arkansas, which he considered his adopted home and he determined that whichever way Arkansas went, he would go too. He and Thomas Hindman successfully raised and organized the Yell Rifles, a militia company that became part of the 1^st Arkansas Infantry. Cleburne’s experience in the British army served him well, and he was elected colonel of his regiment, re-designated the 15^th Arkansas, in late 1861. Promotion caught up with Cleburne again and he was elevated to brigadier general to date from March 4, 1862.

As a brigade commander at Shiloh, Cleburne performed heroically, leading his men in heavy fighting near Shiloh Church. As a division commander at the Battle of Richmond Kentucky that summer Cleburne was seriously wounded in the mouth. After that he was forced to wear a short beard to hide his scar. He developed a fierce fighting reputation in the army and was elevated to major general in December 1862 before leading his division at the Battle of Stones River. He went on to distinguish himself by his leadership at Chickamauga and Chattanooga in the fall of 1863. At Chattanooga, his division held the only part of the Confederate line not routed and put to flight on November 25. At Ringgold Gap, Georgia two days later Cleburne led his division in protecting the rear of the fleeing Army of Tennessee and their supply trains. For this act he was voted the Thanks of the Confederate Congress.

In January 1864 Cleburne developed and articulated a proposal to arm the slaves and free the ones who yielded good service. He presented this proposal to the generals and field officers of the Army of Tennessee at a public meeting, claiming among other things, that slavery should be sacrificed to offset the South’s numerical inferiority in manpower. This measure was extremely unpopular, and lead to speculation that Cleburne was never promoted beyond major general because of the political stigma attached to his proposal.

In early 1864 Cleburne also fell in love with Susan Tarleton when she was the maid of honor and he the best man at the wedding of General William J. Hardee. By March, Patrick and Susan were engaged. But his newfound romance was cut short by the onset of the Atlanta Campaign in May.

Patrick Cleburne led his division again with distinction through the Atlanta Campaign, garnering special praise for the Battle of Pickett’s Mill in which his division threw back a determined Union assault. Still unable to get away and see Susan again, Cleburne embarked on the Tennessee Campaign in September 1864. At Spring Hill on November 29, 1864, a comedy of errors prevented the Confederates from trapping and destroying the entire Yankee army. The Confederate commander John Bell Hood took out his frustration on Cleburne among others. As special retribution, Hood placed Cleburne and his division directly in the center of the charge he ordered at Franklin. Indignant and despondent over the future of the Confederacy, Cleburne led his division one last time, only to fall on the field of Franklin. Writing about him after his death, Robert E. Lee characterized him as “A meteor shining from a clouded sky.” As a combat commander, Cleburne had no superiors and maybe no equals. He always put duty and loyalty above personal considerations, and as such has earned a deserving place in the Confederate pantheon.

Craig Symonds, like many biographers, has a tendency to fall in love with his subjects. Admittedly Stonewall of the West is a critical biography of Cleburne, but Symonds leaves little doubt as to where he stands in regard to the Irishman. While such adoration is sometimes unmerited (as in the case of Joseph Johnston), Cleburne for one is certainly a worthy recipient of Symonds’ clear, moving prose and attention to detail.