SNIPPET: Although many more Irish served the cause of the Union in the American Civil War, thirty thousand Irish also served the Confederacy. The latter came principally from the South's cities. Like their northern counterparts, many southern Irish intended to gain combat experience for an eventual Fenian uprising in Ireland. However, the southerners also were dedicated to State's Rights ideology, seeing it as analogous to Ireland's struggle against Britain. Patrick Ronayne CLEBURNE (middle name RONAYNE honoring his mother's family) was born into a moderately-wealthy Irish Protestant family in Co. Cork on St. Patrick's Eve, 1834. His physician father wanted CLEBURNE to follow him into medicine, but after failing his entrance exam to medical school, CLEBURNE impulsively enlisted in the British Army. As a member of the 41st Regiment of Foot, CLEBURNE acquired a ramrod-straight military bearing that he would retain throughout his career. His only action during his 43 months in the British army involved helping to keep the peace in an Ireland wracked by the potato famine. Like thousands of his starving fellow countrymen, CLEBURNE joined the mass exodus to America in 1849, buying his way out the army and immigrating to the bustling frontier town of Helena, AR. There, he opened a pharmacy and put himself through law school. During that same period, CLEBURNE became an ally of the feisty, diminutive politician Thomas HINDMAN. When CLEBURNE and HINDMAN were drawn into a gunfight with political rivals on the streets of Helena, CLEBURNE suffered a gunshot wound that nearly proved to be fatal, at the same time shooting and killing one of his assailants. When the Civil War broke out, CLEBURNE joined the local Yell Rifles. As company commander, he put his British army training to good use on the drilling grounds. He wanted to see the Union preserved, but only if the South received "the full measure of her constitutional rights." CLEBURNE was a tireless, hands-on commander of troops, and it soon became evident that his unit was better trained and disciplined than most other Confederate units. He was quickly promoted to brigadier general. At the Battle of Shiloh, April 6-9, 1862, CLEBURNE's brigade suffered nearly 50% casualties, the largest percentage of any brigade in the army. CLEBURNE, himself, was singled out for "conducting his command with persevering valor." It would not be the last time he received such distinctive praise. As a divisional commander in the Army of Tennessee, CLEBURNE led his hard-fighting troops into battle at Perryville, Stones River, Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge. At Missionary Ridge in November 1863, CLEBURNE was one of the few Confederate commanders to distinguish himself, holding off Maj. Gen. William SHERMAN's daylong assaults on the north end of the ridge before being compelled to retreat with the rest of the army at nightfall. In winter quarters in northern GA, CLEBURNE surprised fellow officers with "a plan to entice black soldiers to fight for the Confederacy in return for a promise of liberation at the end of the war." CLEBURNE's revolutionary plan was rapidly squelched by Confederate authorities - only to be revived by Robert E. LEE in the last days of the war, when it was too late to do any good. In January 1864, CLEBURNE got a brief respite from war when he went to Mobile, AL, to attend the wedding of his friend and superior, Lt. Gen. William J. HARDEE. There, he became smitten with a member of the wedding party, a local belle named Susan TARLETON. Putting aside his normal reticence, he pursued her until she agreed to an engagement. The wedding would have to wait until later in the war. But later never came. CLEBURNE was killed while leading his men in a suicidal attack on the Union breastworks at Franklin, TN, on November 30, 1864. His last words before making the attack were, "I will take the enemy's works or fall in the attempt." Susan TARLETON got word of her fiancé's death in a cruel way. Walking in her Mobile garden, she heard a paperboy call out, "Big battle near Franklin, Tennessee! General Cleburne killed! Read all about it." Susan wore mourning for a year. >From Shiloh to Franklin, on some the worst battlefields of the Civil War, Irish-born Confederate General Patrick CLEBURNE could always be counted on to fearlessly rally his troops and stand his ground for his adopted Southland. General Braxton BRAGG, who gave praise sparingly and who later crossed swords with CLEBURNE in an intra-army dispute, said his subordinate was an officer who was "ever alive to a success." And Confederate President Jefferson DAVIS regarded CLEBURNE as no less than "the Stonewall of the West." The man who garnered such remarkable praise lived less than 37 years, but his life was filled with adventure, romance and tragedy. Many books have been written about him including "Stonewall of the West: Patrick Cleburne & The Civil War," University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, 1997, author Craig L. SYMONDS, perhaps you can locate a copy in your library. Artist Rick REEVES painted a marvelous painting about the same year, "Twilight of an Army," in which Brig. Gen. Patrick CLEBURNE leads his men for the last time in an attack on the Union breastworks at the Battle of Franklin, TN, November 30, 1864. -- Book Review - "America's Civil War"