1863), where his men routed the Union right
wing and drove it back four miles. He then ac-
companied Bragg’s retreat back to northern
Georgia the following spring and summer.
Like many other officers, Cleburne came to
despise Bragg, who was a close friend and
personal confidant of Confederate President
Jefferson Davis.
On September 19–20, 1863, Cleburne con-
firmed his reputation as an outstanding com-
bat leader at the bloody Battle of Chicka-
mauga. He so ferociously assailed the Union
position that its commander, Gen. William S.
Rosecrans, pulled units from other parts of
the field to reinforce it. This, in turn, enabled
the corps of Gen. James Longstreetto come
crashing through the center, routing the entire
force. Cleburne scored an even bigger suc-
cess during the Battle of Chattanooga (No-
vember 25, 1863). With his single division he
prevented Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s
force of four divisions from advancing. Gen-
eral Grant then authorized the feint up Mis-
sionary Ridge by Gen. George Thomas’s
corps, and the entire Confederate line fell
back, but Cleburne’s command assumed the
rear guard. On November 27, 1863, he vio-
lently repelled Gen. Joseph Hooker’s Corps at
Ringgold Gap, allowing Bragg and the rem-
nants of his army to escape toward Dalton,
Georgia. This performance enshrined Cle-
burne’s reputation as the “Stonewall of the
West,” and the Confederate Congress twice
voted him its thanks. During the bleak winter
of 1863–1864, his advancement to high com-
mand seemed all but assured.
Cleburne’s sterling reputation took a de-
cided and unexpected turn for the worse in
January 1863. Faced with the prospect of
growing manpower shortages, he innocently
and rather naively proposed that the South
should abolish slavery and recruit African
American slaves to fight in exchange for
emancipation. Cleburne may have been
Southern in outlook and allegiance, but he
was no racist. In fact, during his entire tenure
in Arkansas, he never owned slaves. His sug-
gestion was based more on practicality than
outright altruism: Such a move would poten-
tially tap half a million new soldiers as well as
facilitate British and French diplomatic
recognition of the Confederacy, which in turn
held the potential of direct military interven-
tion on the South’s behalf. It was a common-
sense suggestion, one that the Confederacy
ultimately adopted in the waning months of
the war. However, at this juncture Southern
leaders were shocked by his proposal, and it
remained stillborn. Moreover, Cleburne for-
feited whatever reputation he had previously
enjoyed with President Davis, who had Cle-
burne’s suggestion officially quashed. Worse
yet, Davis took steps to deliberately withhold
him from a corps command.
Cleburne continued functioning effectively
as a division commander throughout the
bloody and decisive Atlanta campaign. He
helped Gen. Joseph E. Johnston repulse
Sherman’s main attack at Kennesaw Moun-
tain on June 27, 1864, and performed similar
work at Bald Hill on July 22. Command then
changed over to the aggressive Gen. John
Bell Hood, who made repeated and futile at-
tacks against Sherman’s superior forces.
When Atlanta was evacuated on September 1,
1864, Cleburne accompanied Hood on an ill-
fated campaign against Sherman’s lines of
communication in Tennessee. On November
30, 1864, the ragged Confederates prepared
for an all-out assault against dug-in Union po-
sitions at Franklin. Cleburne’s division, as
usual, would spearhead the attack, only this
time across two and a half miles of open ter-
rain. Losing heavily at every step, the surging
Confederates nonetheless overran the two
lines of Union works. Cleburne, who had two
horses shot from under him, led the final
charge on foot—sword in hand—when he
was struck and killed. He became one of six
Confederate generals to fall that day. Greatly
mourned, Cleburne was initially buried at
Rose Hill Cemetery in Columbia, Tennessee;
after the war his remains were relocated to
Helena, Arkansas. He tactical adroitness ren-
dered him, quite possibly, the finest Southern
divisional commander of the Civil War.CLEBURNE, PATRICKRONAYNE