Pat Cleburne, Confederate General: A Definitive Biography (review)

BOOK REVIEWS185 undefeated. As such, his book is less a contribution to knowledge of the war than a representative of postwar "Lost Cause" literature. Silver notes some resultant mistakes but disclaims intent "to follow up all the ramifications" of the book. More critical exploration and assessment of these "ramifications" would have enhanced the historical value of this marginal volume. The relatively few footnotes provided are adequate but not outstanding. The editor's principal contribution is to include frequent excerpts from the wartime diary of Wilson's friend, Major Robert Locke of the 42nd Mississippi. In comparing the two sources, one is tempted to state that Silver would have done better to simply annotate and publish Locke's diary and not bother reprinting Wilson's memoirs. Richard J. Sommers U. S. Army Military History Research Collection Pat Cleburne, Confederate General: A Definitive Biography. By Howell and Elizabeth Purdue. (Hillsboro, Tex.: Hill Jr. College Press, 1973, Pp. xvi, 498. $10.50.) It is easy to imagine that the Purdues' Cleburne might be cooly received outside the pale of voracious and uncritical buffs of the Civil War. It is after all another biography of a minor military figure, and its authors are confessed and unabashed amateurs. In this instance, however , a hasty verdict would be unfortunate. In the first place, Patrick Ronayne Cleburne deserves to be remembered . While his pre-war career can scarcely be called outstanding, it was interesting and is instructive. As an Irish immigrant to Arkansas at the beginning of the 1850's, Cleburne's easy rise to prominence in Helena society should be remembered by those who are tempted to paint too vividly the closedness of the southern community. In the same vein, Cleburne seems to have had no difficulty in identifying with the South as his America, despite the fact he never owned slaves and never became exercised about the slavery question itself. To his mind the issues of 1860 were personal liberty and states' rights, and for these he was willing to risk his life for his adopted land. Cleburne is interesting also as being one of those whom calamity raise from nothing into greatness. As a druggist and lawyer he was a man of ordinary talents. As a combat leader of infantry, however, he was probably the best general of division produced by either side during the war. A stickler for drill and discipline, he nevertheless captured the confidence of his men at the outset. He could carry more of his men into battle and keep them there longer than any other commander in the Army of Tennessee. At Shiloh his brigade was engaged from dawn to dusk on the first day, sweeping over Sherman, helping to reduce the obstinate Hornets' Nest, and approaching to within four hundred yards of Pittsburg Land- 186CIVIL WAR HISTORY ing, before finally halted by orders from Beauregard. This record of ferocious and tenacious combat Cleburne imprinted on every major battlefield of the Army of Tennessee until he was killed at the head of his division at Franklin in November, 1864. William J. Hardee later observed: "Where this division defended, no odds broke its lines; where it was attacked, no numbers resisted its onslaught, save only once—and there is the grave of Cleburne and his heroic division." This eulogy is not far from fact. By studying the Confederate high command in the West and the imbalance of odds in men and material there, it is relatively easy to understand why the South failed in that theater of the war. To answer the almost equally important question of how, considering those very factors, the Army of Tennessee fought so long, so well, however, it is necessary to study the lower command and the rank and file. And the best place to begin a study of this second question would be Pat Cleburne and his division. Aside from the importance of its subject, the chief virtue of the biography at hand is its wide ranging and intensive research. In this respect the "amateur" authors put to shame some of the presumed "professionals." Not only have they used the standard periodical, monographic and manuscript sources, but they have diligently searched government archives and...