Admirers called Patrick Ronayne Cleburne the "Stonewall Jackson of the West." While Cleburne never rose as high in rank or responsibility as the great Jackson, there is no doubt that he was the best division commander in the Confederate Army of Tennessee.

Cleburne was born in Ireland on March 16, 1828. Orphaned by age fifteen, Cleburne hoped to become a doctor like his father, but he failed his admission examination to Trinity College in February 1846. The boy hid his shame by enlisting in the British Army. After three-and-a-half years, Cleburne purchased his discharge from the 41st Regiment of Foot and sailed away to start a new life in America.

Cleburne settled in Helena, Arkansas, where he first worked as a druggist. Ambitious for higher things, he started practicing law in 1856. An early supporter of secession, Cleburne helped engineer the seizure of the Little Rock Arsenal in March 1861 -- two months before Arkansas left the Union. With the outbreak of civil war, Cleburne was elected colonel of the 15th Arkansas Infantry. His talent for command resulted in an appointment as brigadier general on March 4, 1862.

Cleburne led a brigade at Shiloh, and suffered wounds at Richmond and Perryville. Upgraded to major general on December 20, 1862, his division hammered the Union line at Stone's River with such force that it almost won the battle. Following the Army of Tennessee's defeat at Chattanooga on November 25, 1863, he handled his rear-guard duties so skillfully that he received the thanks of the Confederate Congress.

In the winter of 1863-64 Cleburne boldly recommended that the Confederacy replenish its battlefield losses by recruiting slaves and free all slaves who remained faithful to the Southern cause. President Jefferson Davis ordered the proposal suppressed, and Cleburne complied.

After abandoning Atlanta in September 1864, General John Bell Hood tried to lure the Federals out of Georgia by invading Tennessee. On November 30, Hood threw his 38,000 troops at 32,000 Yankees entrenched around Franklin. Cleburne knew Hood was wrong, but he told a subordinate: "If we are to die, let us die like men." Placing himself at the forefront of his division, Cleburne got within forty yards of the enemy's breastworks before he fell in accordance with his own motto: "Life has always been a small matter with me when duty points the way."

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