The Battles of Patrick R. Cleburne
“The Stonewall of the West”
Born in Ireland and a veteran of the British Royal Army, Patrick Ronayne Cleburne immigrated to the United States in 1849, eventually settling in Helena, Arkansas. When impending war threatened his adopted home in 1861, he wasted no time in rushing to its defense, and by 1862 the Irishman had risen from private to brigadier general.
From the battles of Shiloh to Franklin, Cleburne distinguished himself as both a brigade and division commander, and was wounded at both the battles of Richmond and Perryville. His division became one of the crack units in the Army of Tennessee, and its leader eventually came to be known as “the Stonewall of the West.”
Like his Eastern theater counterpart, Cleburne ultimately fell in the fight for Southern independence. Upon hearing of Cleburne's death at Franklin Gen. William J. Hardee offered this tribute to his erstwhile subordinate: "Where this division defended, no odds broke its line; where it attacked, no numbers resisted its onslaught, save only once; and there is the grave of Cleburne."
