Major-General Patrick R. Cleburne, one of the most brilliant soldiers of the Confederate States, was a native of Ireland. When twenty-two years of age he joined the British army as a private, and there took his first lessons in drill and discipline. For good conduct he was promoted to the rank of corporal. After remaining three years in the British army he procured his discharge and came to America. He settled in Arkansas, became a hard student, was admitted to the bar, and the year 1861 found him practicing law in Helena, enjoying in his profession and in society the honorable position which his toil and native worth had gained for him.
Gen. Patrick Cleburne and the Army of Tennessee at Franklin, Tenn., Nov. 1864.
He was among the first to answer the call to arms. He raised a company and with it joined the First, afterward known as the Fifteenth Arkansas regiment, of which he was almost unanimously elected colonel. His first campaign was with General Hardee in Missouri. At its close he went with Hardee to Bowling Green, Ky. He had during this short military service so impressed his superiors that he was assigned to command of a brigade, and on March 4, 1862, was commissioned brigadier-general.
The final, tragic, moments of Patrick Cleburne, as painted by artist Don Troiani.
At the battle of Shiloh he proved that his abilities had not been overestimated, and during the reorganization of the army at Tupelo he brought his brigade to a very high state of discipline and efficiency. He had that valuable combination of qualifications for command which enabled him to enforce discipline and at the same time secure the esteem and confidence of his troops. At Richmond, Ky., he commanded a division whose impetuous charge had much to do with winning the magnificent victory over "Bull" Nelson's army. Though painfully wounded in this battle, a few weeks later he led his men in the fierce conflict at Perryville, with his usual success.
Bringing Cleburne In
Franklin, Tennessee, December 1, 1864
On December 13, 1862, he was commissioned major-general. He was in the memorable attack upon the right of the Federal army at Murfreesboro, which drove the Union lines until the mass in front became at last too thick for further penetration. Again at Chickamauga Cleburne made a charge, in which his men by desperate valor won and held a position that had been assailed time and again without success. At Missionary Ridge, in command at the tunnel, he defeated Sherman, capturing flags and hundreds of prisoners, and when involved in the general defeat, he made a heroic fight at Ringgold gap and saved Bragg's artillery and wagon train.
In recognition of this gallant exploit, the Confederate Congress passed the following joint resolution: "Resolved, that the thanks of Congress are due, and are hereby tendered to Maj.-Gen. Patrick R. Cleburne, and the officers and men under his command, for the victory obtained by them over superior forces of the enemy at Ringgold gap in the State of Georgia on the 27th day of November, 1863, by which the advance of the enemy was impeded, our wagon trains and most of our artillery saved, and a large number of the enemy killed and wounded."
One of the most brilliant episodes of the Atlanta campaign of 1864 was Cleburne's victory at Pickett's mill over Howard's corps of Sherman's army. In the awful carnage at Franklin, November 30, 1864, Cleburne, the "Stonewall Jackson of the West," gave his last battle order. Within twenty paces of the Union line, pierced by three wounds, he fell, and on the battlefield expired. His death was a disheartening blow to the army of Tennessee, and was mourned throughout the whole South.
Additional Sources: ngeorgia.com
www.civilwarhome.com
www.southernmessenger.org
freepages.history.rootsweb.com
www.framery.com
www.tennesseehistory.com
www.us-civilwar.com
www.mortkunstler.com
www.artfinders.com
www.civilwarmuseum.com
www.scv674.org
www.southernhistorical.com
www.civilwarphotos.net
Today's classic warship, USS Cleveland (CL-55)
Cleveland class light cruiser
Displacement: 10,000 t.
Length: 610’1”
Beam: 66’6”
Draft: 20’
Speed: 33 k.
Complement: 992
Armament: 12 6”; 12 5”; 28 40mm; 10 20mm; 4 Aircraft
The USS CLEVELAND (CL-55) was launched 1 November 1941 by New York Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, N.J.; sponsored by Mrs. H. Burton; and commissioned 15 June 1942, Captain E. W. Burrough in command.
Clearing Norfolk 10 October 1942, CLEVELAND joined a task force off Bermuda bound for the invasion of North Africa. Her firepower supported the landings at Fedhala, French Morocco, on 8 November and she remained on patrol until 12 November, returning to Norfolk, 24 November.
CLEVELAND sailed for the Pacific 5 December 1942, and arrived at Efate 16 January. Her first mission in the consolidation of the Solomon Islands was with TF 18 to guard a troop convoy to Guadalcanal from 27 to 31 January. CLEVELAND fired on the enemy as she came under heavy air attack in the Battle of Rennell Island on the 29th and 30th.
Joining TF 68, CLEVELAND steamed up "the slot" 6 March 1943 to bombard Japanese airfields at Vila, then joined in the attacks which sank two Japanese destroyers in Kula Gulf. Still with TF 68, "Merrill's Marauders," CLEVELAND fired in the bombardment of the Shortland Islands on 30 June and provided gun support for the invasion landings at Munda, New Georgia on 12 July. Following a short repair period at Sydney, Australia, CLEVELAND sailed for the preinvasion bombardment of the Treasury Islands on 26 and 27 October. Her task force steamed to blast Buka and Bonis on 1 November in support of the troops invading Bougainville, dashed south the same day to neutralize bases in the Shortlands, and that night intercepted a Japanese force off Empress Augusta Bay in the action which was to win her a Navy Unit Commendation. CLEVELAND poured her radar-controlled fire into the four Japanese cruisers for over an hour, aiding in sinking SENDAI, then chased the fleeing ships until daybreak. An air attack followed and one stick of bombs severely rocked CLEVELAND, who answered by splashing several of the enemy planes. She returned to Buka for another bombardment on 23 December, then patrolled between Truk and Green Island from 13 to 18 February 1944, while American forces captured the latter.
After supporting the capture of Emirau Island, from 17 to 23 March 1944, CLEVELAND sailed for replenishment and repairs at Sydney, Australia, then returned to the Solomons 21 April to prepare for the Marianas operation. One practice bombardment on 20 May brought return fire unexpectedly which straddled the ship, but unharmed, she quickly silenced the shore batteries.
From 8 June to 12 August 1944, CLEVELAND participated in the Marianas operation. She conducted softening-up bombardments and then gave fire support for invading troops until she joined TF 58 for the Battle of the Philippine Sea on 19 and 20 June. Although few enemy aircraft penetrated the screen of American carrier planes, CLEVELAND was credited with splashing at least one enemy aircraft and assisting in downing another of the few which did get through.
From 12 to 29 September 1944, CLEVELAND fired in the invasion of the Palaus, then sailed from Manus 5 October for a stateside overhaul. She arrived in Subic Bay 9 February 1945, and sailed on to bombard Corregidor on 13 and 14 February, effectively neutralizing the fortress before the landings there. Continuing to support the consolidation of the Philippines, she covered the landings at Puerto Princesa, the Visayans, Panay, and the Malabang-Parang area on Mindanao.
CLEVELAND put out from Subic Bay 7 June 1945 to act as part of the covering force and provide fire support for the invasion landings at Brunei Bay, Borneo on 10 June. She returned to Subic Bay 16 June, then sailed to Manila to embark General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, USA, and his staff as observers of the assault on Balikpapan. Arriving 30 June, she fired in a prelanding bombardment the next morning, and after General MacArthur had made an inspection tour of the landing area, got underway for Manila, arriving 3 July.
With a new cruiser task force, CLEVELAND sailed 13 July 1945 to Okinawa, arriving 16 July. From this base, the force made a series of sweeps against Japanese shipping until 7 August to insure Allied control of the East China Sea. CLEVELAND got underway from Okinawa 9 September to support the occupation of Japan by covering the evacuation of Allied prisoners of war from Wakayama, then serving as part of a naval occupation group until the 6th Army made its landings on Honshu. After a short stay in Tokyo Bay (28 October-1 November), CLEVELAND sailed for Pearl Harbor, San Diego, the Panama Canal, and Boston, arriving 5 December for overhaul.
She operated out of Newport on various training exercises, including a Naval Reserve training cruise to Halifax, Nova Scotia and Quebec in June 1946 before reporting to Philadelphia for inactivation. CLEVELAND was placed out of commission in reserve there 7 February 1947, until sold for scrap 18 February 1960.
In addition to her Navy Unit Commendation, CLEVELAND received 13 battle stars for World War II service.
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on August 30:
1334 Pedro, the Cruel, King of Castilia & Leon
1748 Jacques-Louis David France, Neoclassical painter (Death of Marat)
1797 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley London England, author (Frankenstein)
1871 Ernest Lord Rutherford England, physicist; discovered atomic nucleus
1884 Theodor Svedberg Sweden, chemist, worked with colloids (Nobel '26)
1893 Huey P Long Winn Parish La, (gov/sen-D-La)
1896 Raymond Massey Toronto Canada, actor (Dr Gillespie-Dr Kildare)
1901 John Gunther Chicago Ill, author/host (John Gunther's High Road)
1901 John C Stennis (Sen-D-MS, 1947-88)
1901 Roy Wilkins civil rights director (NAACP)
1907 Fred MacMurray Kankakee Ill, actor (Caine Mutiny, My 3 Sons)
1909 Joan Blondell NYC, actress (Real McCoys, Here Come the Brides)
1918 Ted Williams Baseball's last .400 hitter (Boston Red Sox, hit .406, .344 lifetime)
1919 Kitty Wells Nashville Tn, country singer (Grand Ole Opry)
1927 Geoffrey Beene Louisiana, dress designer (8 Coty Awards)
1928 Bill Daily Des Moines Iowa, actor (I Dream of Jeannie, Newhart)
1930 Warren Buffett author (The Midas Touch)
1931 John L Swigert Jr Denver Colorado, astronaut (Apollo 13
1935 John Phillips singer (Mama & Papas-California Dreaming)
1943 Jean Claude Killy France, skier (Olympic-3 golds-1968)
1943 R Crumb cartoonist (Father Time)
1947 Peggy Lipton Lawrence NY, actress (Julie-Mod Squad, Twin Peaks)
1950 John Landis actor (American Werewolf in London)
Deaths which occurred on August 30:
0030 BC Cleopatra 7th & most famous queen of Egypt, commits suicide (really made an asp of herself)
0526 Theodorik the Great, King of Ostrogoths, conqueror of Roman Empire/King of Italy,
1483 Louis XI king of France (1461-83), dies at 60
1809 Ignacy Potocki Polish Foreign Minister (constitution), dies
1879 John B Hood confederate general (lost Atlanta), dies at 48
1914 Aleksandr Samsonov Russian general, commits suicide
1930 William H Taft 27th US President, dies
1961 Charles Coburn Acad award winning actor, dies at 84
1963 Axel Stordahl orch leader (Frank Sinatra Show), dies at 50
1968 William Talman actor (Hamilton-Perry Mason), dies at 53
1970 Del Moore actor/announcer (Cal-Bachelor Father), dies at 53
1981 Mohammad Ali Rajai president of Iran, assassinated by a bomb
1981 Mohammad Javad Bahonar prime minister of Iran, assassinated by a bomb
1993 Richard Jordan, US actor (Hunt for Red October, Posse), dies at 55, shortly after finishing movie, Gettysburg (Gen. Armistead)
Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1966 HOFF SAMMIE D. KENNEDY TX.
[EJECTED RADIO CONTACT - REMAINS RETURNED EARLY 89]
1966 ROBINSON KENNETH D. INDIANAPOLIS IN.
[NO SUBS INTEL INFO / REMAINS RETURNED 12/88]
1967 ALLARD MICHAEL JOHN SCHOFIELD WI.
1970 PERALTA BENJAMIN R.
POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.
On this day...
0031 BC Origin of Era of Augustus
0257 St Sixtus II begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1146 European leaders outlaw crossbow, intending to end war for all time(Well THAT worked real good)
1464 Pietro Barbo elected to succeed Pope Pius II (Paul II)
1645 Dutch & Indians sign peace treaty
1721 The Peace of Nystad ends the Second Northern War between Sweden and Russia, giving Russia considerably more power in the Baltic region.
1776 US army evacuates Long Island/falls back to Manhattan, NYC
1780 General Benedict Arnold betrayed the US when he promised secretly to surrender the fort at West Point to the British army. Arnold - whose name has become synonymous with traitor - fled to England after the botched consipracy. His co-conspirator, British spy Major John Andre, was hanged by Gen. Washington
1781 French fleet of 24 ships under Comte de Grasse defeat British under Admiral Graves at battle of Chesapeake Capes in Revolutionary War
1843 1st black participation in natl political convention (Liberty Party)
1850 Honolulu, Hawaii becomes a city
1861 Union General John Fremont declares martial law throughout Missouri and makes his own emancipation proclamation to free slaves in the state. President Lincoln overrules the general.
1862 Battle of 2nd Manassas-Pope defeated by Lee-Battle of Richmond, KY
1862 Battle of Altamont-Confederates beat Union forces in Tennessee
1885 13,000 meteors seen in 1 hour near Andromeda
1888 Lord Walsingham kills 1070 grouse in a single day
1905 Ty Cobb's 1st major league at bat (Detroit Tigers)
1913 Phillies lead Giants 8-6 in top of 9th, fans in bleachers try to distract Giants, Umpire forefeits game to Giants, later overruled
1914 1st German plane bombs above Paris, 2 killed
1914 Battle at Tannenberg ends in destruction of Russian 2nd Narev army
1918 Czechoslovakia forms independence republic
1932 - World War I fighter ace, Hermann Goring elected president of Reichstag
1933 Portuguese dictator Salazar forms secret police (PIDE)
1939 Isoroku Yamamoto appointed supreme commander of Japanese fleet
1939 NY Yankee Atley Donald pitches a baseball a record 94.7 mph (152 kph)
1941 German forces began the 900-day siege of Leningrad. When the siege ends, the Russian city lay in ruins and hundreds of thousands of people had died. And Leningrad still belonged to the Russians.
1941 St Louis Card Lon Warneke no-hits Cin Reds, 2-0
1944 Soviet troops enter Bucharest Romania
1945 Hong Kong liberated from Japan
1956 White mob prevents enrollment of blacks at Mansfield HS, Texas
1957 In an effort to stall the Civil Rights Act of 1957 from passing, Senator Strom Thurmond (D-S.C.) filibusters for over 24 hours. The bill passed, but Thurmond's filibuster becomes the longest in Senate history.
1961 1st Negro judge of a US District Court confirmed-JB Parsons
1963 Hot Line communications link between Wash DC & Moscow went begins
1965 Casey Stengel announces his retirement after 55 years in baseball
1965 Section of Allalin glacier wipes out construction site at Mattmark Dam near Saas-Fee, Switzerland
1967 US Senate confirm Thurgood Marshall as 1st black justice
1968 1st record under Apple label (Beatle's Hey Jude)
1969 120,000 attend Texas Intl Pop Festival
1969 25,000 attend 2nd Annual Sky River Rock Festival, Tenino Wash
1969 Racial disturbances in Fort Lauderdale Florida
1974 Express train runs full speed into Zagreb, Yugo rail yard killing 153
1976 Tom Brokaw becomes news anchor of the Today Show
1979 1st recorded occurrence-comet hits sun (energy=1 mil hydrogen bombs)
1979 Pres Carter attacked by a rabbit on a canoe trip in Plains Ga
1983 8th Space Shuttle Mission-Challenger 3-launched (6 days)
1984 12th Space Shuttle Mission (41-D)-Discovery 1-launched (6 days)
1986 Soviet authorities arrested Nicholas Daniloff (US News World Report)
1987 Ben Johnson of Canada runs 100 m in world record 9.83 sec
1987 Yves Pol of France runs complete marathon backwards (3:57:57)
1991 Dan O'Brien sets US decathalon record with 8,812 points
1995 Cable News Network joins internet
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Afghanistan : Children's Day
England, Channel Is, Northern Ireland, Wales : Bank Holiday (Monday)
Gibraltar : Bank Holiday
Turkey : Victory Day (1922)
Hong Kong : Liberation Day (1945) (Monday)
National Neighborhood Day
National Toasted Marshmallow Day
National Sandwich Month
Religious Observances
RC : Comm of St Fiacre, Irish hermit, patron of gardeners
Old RC : Feast of St Rose of Lima, patron of Latin America
RC Felix & Adauctus, Roman martyrs
RC Pammachius, Roman senator
Religious History
1637 Colonial religious teacher Anne Hutchinson, 46, was charged with "traducing (i.e., degrading) the ministry" and was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Moving the following year to Rhode Island, then to New York, Anne and her family were killed by Indians in 1643.
1770 Anglican clergyman and hymnwriter John Newton wrote in a letter: 'The exercised and experienced Christian, by the knowledge he has gained of his own heart and the many difficulties he has had to struggle with, acquires a skill and compassion in dealing with others.
1820 Birth of George F. Root, American sacred music editor and composer. Root helped edit 75 musical collections, as well as composing several hundred original sacred melodies. One of these, JEWELS, is the tune to which is commonly sung the hymn, "When He Cometh."
1856 Wilberforce University was established in Xenia, Ohio under auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1863, the university was transferred to the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church.
1894 Independent Christian evangelist and educator Bob Jones, Sr. was converted at age 11 to a vital Christian faith. Licensed to preach by the Methodists at 15, Jones maintained a lifelong fundamentalist view of the Bible. In 1926, at age 32, he founded Bob Jones University.
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Thought for the day :
"You learn something every day if you pay attention."
Translating Southern United States Slang to English...
THANK - verb. Ability to cognitively process.
Usage: "Ah thank ah'll have a bare."
Things a Cat Thinks About...
Is there something I'm not getting when humans make noise with their mouths?
Politically Correct Terms for Females...
She does not have sexy lips,
she is collagen dependent.
Feel Smarter -- Instantly!...
After finding no qualified candidates for the position of principal, the school board is extremely pleased to announce the appointment of David Steele to the post.
-- Philip Streifer, Superintendent of Schools, Barrington, Rhode Island
