The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Battle of Nashville - 1864

Patrick Cleburne

Born: County Cork, Ireland, March 17, 1828(St. Patrick's Day)
Died:Franklin, Tennessee, November 30, 1864

According to History of a Great Island, by Rev. Henry Dennehy, Patrick Ronaynes Cleburne was born at Annbrook House, Glenmore, Great Island in County Cork. His father was a doctor and his mother was one of the Berry-Hill Ronaynes who built the home. Enlisting in the 41st Regiment of Foot after failing a medical exam, Cleburne's unit was charged with maintaining order in a country racked by potato famine. The lessons he learned would serve him well.

Cleburne moved to America in 1849 and practiced law in Arkansas. In 1862 he received a commission as brigadier general in the Confederate Army. One of two foreign born officers to attain the rank of major general in the Confederate armed forces, he was recognized as a skilled combat officer and distinguished himself in many battles.

At Chattanooga he repelled Sherman's attack in spite of being outnumbered 4 to 1. During the retreat from that battle he won the Battle of Ringgold Gap although Hooker had 3 men for his 1. He repeatedly faced Sherman's advancing troops during the Atlanta Campaign. After Cleburne's troops absorbed the Union assault at Pickett's Mill, he was moved to the Confederate left and was involved in the skirmishing along the Dallas line. During the Nashville Campaign he succeeded to the command of Hardee's Corps. On his way north during this campaign, Cleburne stopped at a church in Maury County, Tennessee, and by local tradition was heard to comment at the cemetery of Saint John's Church that, "it is almost worth dying for to be buried in such a beautiful place." Cleburne was killed in battle a few days later at Franklin, Tennessee, on November 30, 1864 and buried here until later disinterred.

His sobriquet(nickname) was "Stonewall Jackson of the West". It would have been more accurate to call Jackson "Pat Cleburne of the East". Fighting on the western front Cleburne generally got less glory than generals in the east. Fighting under Braxton Bragg, Joseph E. Johnston, and John Bell Hood, arguably the most incapable succession of commanding officers, Cleburne repeatedly demonstrated his abilities. Fighting for the losing side he got less attention and coverage than the Union generals. But Cleburne fought for a cause(states rights), and one in which he firmly believed.

One other event affected how he was viewed during and after the war. Stationed at Tunnel Hill, Ga. after the defeat at Chattanooga, Cleburne, leading a group of commissioned officers, proposed drafting Negroes into the Confederate Army in return for their emancipation. He reasoned that in one stroke they could increase the size of the army and eliminate a reason for the Federals to fight. While it is doubtful that the resolve of President Lincoln would have been altered (he was fighting to preserve the Union, not to end slavery), the proposal caused quite a backlash in the south and possibly affected the length of the war. When Jefferson Davis decided to remove Johnston from command during the Battle of Atlanta, he selected John Bell Hood over Pat Cleburne in part because of this proposal.

Today no statue exists for this icon of the Confederacy and many of the battlefields on which he fought are unprotected. His stand at Missionary Ridge, the rearguard action at Ringgold Gap, bloody Pickett's Mill...

Today's classic warship, USS San Pablo (AVP-30)

Barnegat class seaplane tender
Displacement. 1,766
Lenght. 311'8"
Beam. 41'1"
Draft. 13'6"
Speed. 20 k.
Complement. 215
Armament. 4 5"

San Pablo (AVP-30) was laid down on 2 July 1941 by the Associated Shipbuilding Co., Seattle, Wash. Launched on 31 March 1942; sponsored by Mrs. W. A Hall; and commissioned on 15 March 1943, Comdr. R. R. Darron in command.

Following commissioning and outfitting, San Pablo conducted shakedown in the Puget Sound area and then steamed to San Diego for readiness training. On 15 June, the small seaplane tender departed the west coast and headed for the South Pacific. At Espiritu Santo, San Pablo embarked marines and deck cargo then proceeded to Noumea, New Caledonia. After offloading there, she went to Brisbane, Australia, to pick up the flight crews and aviation supplies, including spare parts and fuel, of patrol squadron VP-101; then returned to Noumea to commence operations as tender and base for "Black-Cat" (night-fighting, air-search, and reconnaissance) PBM's and PBY's.

With VP-101 and assigned crash boats, San Pablo formed Task Group 73.1 and established their seaplane base by charting the bay, setting out mooring and marker buoys, and constructing quarters for squadron personnel at nearby Honey Hollow. They also built an advanced base at Samarai, Papua, New Guinea. For the next several months, the "Black Cats" operated from these bases, preying on enemy shipping along the coasts of New Guinea, New Britain, New Ireland, and in the Bismarck Sea. They inflicted great losses on inter-island barge traffic as well as to heavy shipping; harassed enemy troops with night bombing and strafing missions; conducted photo intelligence operations; provided at-sea search and rescue support for downed Army fliers and sailors of sunken vessels; and carried high ranking officers, friendly coast watchers, and native guerrilla units.

While continuously on the alert for enemy air attack, San Pablo sailors worked around the clock to fuel, repair, arm, and control the seaplanes, and to feed and care for their crews. On 9 October, she was relieved by Half Moon (AVP-26) and sailed to Brisbane for long needed repair, replenishment, and shore leave. She returned to Noumea on 20 December and resumed operations with VP-52. During January 1944, she gave direct support to the force which occupied Finschhafen, New Guinea, and helped to establish a new advance base at Langemak Bay. At times, she also tended the planes of VP-34, then flying rescue missions for the 5th AAF from Port Moresby. She once temporarily based two OS2U scout planes from Boise (CL-47).

From Langemak Bay, San Pablo's planes helped to prevent the Japanese from supplying garrisons on Rabaul and Kavieng. On 25 February, relieved again by Half Moon, San Pablo returned to Noumea for repairs alongside Dobbin (AD-3). During the work, she assisted in removing a screw from Aaron Ward (DM34) using her seaplane winch. This speeded repairs to the destroyer-minelayer and allowed her to reach Ulithi in time to prepare for the forthcoming Okinawa campaign.

By 24 March, San Pablo was conducting operations at Seeadler Harbor, Admiralty Islands, with VP-3 and VP-52 planes. They carried out night bombing missions in the Carolines and search flights by day. The pace had so quickened by the end of March that Tangier (AV-8) was brought in to help carry the load. On 13 May, they moved to Hollandia to patrol the approaches to Wake Island prior to Allied landings there. Relieved by Orca (AVP-49) on 26 May, Sun Pablo then refueled PT boats at Humboldt Bay and transported personnel and cargo between Manus Seeadler, Emirau, and Woendi. On 19 August, she commenced ASW patrols with VP-11 planes at Woendi and, during October and November, conducted ASW operations off Morotai and Hollandia. Later relieved by San Carlos (AVP-51), she moved to Anibongon Bay Leyte, to support planes conducting search missions in the Philippines.

On 8 December, San Pablo received survivors of Mahan (DD-364) who had been picked up by one of her PBM's after that destroyer had suffered three kamikaze hits and sank in Ormoc Bay. She then joined a convoy en route to Mindoro and came under severe attack by suicide planes for ten consecutive days. Most of the kamikazes were beaten off by AA fire from the convoy screen or by CAP planes. However, one hit an ammunition ship which completely disintegrated in a tremendous explosion, and another crashed into a Liberty ship and caused severe damage. On 30 December at Mindoro, a Val barely passed astern of San Pablo and crashed into Orestes (AGP-10), wounding four San Pablo men with shrapnel. On the 31st, a Betty bombed nearby Porcupine (IX-126) and then crashed into Gansevoort (DD-608). Through January and early February 1945, San Pablo made search missions in the South China Sea and along the China coast with VPB-25 and VP-33 squadrons. On 13 February, she was relieved by Tangier and returned to Leyte.

Through April, she escorted LST-777, Chestatee (AOG-49), and various merchant transports between Leyte and Palawan. She then steamed, via Morotai, to Manus. At the end of June, she moved to Samar and the Lingayen Gulf area for air search and rescue operations in the South China Sea-Formosa area. These lasted until 15 August when she received orders to cease offensive operations. On 2 September, the day of Japan's formal surrender ceremony, San Pablo was in Lingayen Gulf providing ASW patrols to cover occupation convoys bound for Japan.

San Pablo returned to Bremerton, Wash., on 17 November to prepare for inactivation. She moved to Alameda, Calif., on 25 March 1946 and remained idle until placed out of commission, in reserve, on 13 January 1947.

Following conversion to a hydrographic-survey vessel, San Pablo was recommissioned on 17 September 1948 at San Francisco, Comdr. T. E. Chambers in command. She conducted shakedown training off San Diego from 29 October to 15 November and was then ordered to report to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. San Pablo reached Portsmouth, Va., on 14 December and completed outfitting prior to sailing on 3 February 1949 in company with Rehoboth (AVP-50) for oceanographic work in the western approaches to the Mediterranean. Calling at Ponta Delgada, Azores, Plymouth England, Gibraltar, and Bermuda, she returned to Philadelphia on 18 April. During the remainder of the year, she conducted two similar cruises to survey and measure ocean currents, and, during the last made a study of the North Atlantic Drift. She included in her ports of call Scapa Flow; the Orkney Islands; Oslo, Norway; and Copenhagen, Denmark. San Pablo was redesignated AGS-30, effective 25 August 1949.

Beginning 18 January 1950, she conducted a survey of the Gulf Stream; and, from 5 to 26 June, served as Survey Headquarters Ship for a group of American and Canadian vessels engaged in broad coverage behavioral studies of that massive current. After a cruise to Casablanca, French Morocco, in July and August, she returned to the east coast of the United States to conduct survey operations between New London and Key West for the remainder of the year.

During 1951, San Pablo conducted oceanographic studies during various cruises, ranging from Scotland to the Mediterranean and along the coast in the Narragansett Bay operating area. Her tasks included making accurate profile studies of the ocean bottom for the purpose of evaluating new sonar devices. In 1952 she spent the majority of her time in the North Atlantic, and devoted the latter part of the year to training operations out of Norfolk. From 1953 through 1968 San Pablo alternated between the North Atlantic and the Caribbean conducting studies on salinity, sound reflectivity, underwater photography techniques, deep bottom core sampling, bottom profile mapping, sub surface wave phenomena, and other topics still classified. For several months during 1965, she utilized the port and docking facilities at Rosyth, Scotland, as a temporary home port, courtesy of the British Royal Navy. From 1 January to 29 May 1969, she underwent inactivation at Philadelphia.

San Pablo was decommissioned on 29 May 1969 and struck from the Navy list on 1 June. After being used by the Ocean Science Center of the Atlantic Commission, Savannah, Georgia, she was sold on 14 September 1971 to Mrs. Margo Zahardis of Vancouver, Wash.

San Pablo earned four battle stars for World War II service.

Today's classic warship post is in memory of actor Richard Crenna, who played the Command Officer of the USS San Pablo (a ficticious gunboat) in the movie "The Sand Pebbles". Mr. Crenna passed away 17 January 2003. He was 75.

The Ben Berith, a Memoir of the Battle of Nashville

by Benjamin F. Peixotto

The distant roar of the fiercely raging battle. each moment became fainter as they bore me on a stretcher from the field. I was semi-conscious by turns only, and then naught but a confused, rumbling sound smote upon my ear. When at length my comrades rested, a momentary gleam of intelligence shot through my hot brain; then all was gloom and darkness, as if the shadow of death hovering above had descended, and my frail anatomy had ceased to pulsate with the breath of mortality. When next I awoke, I lay in the hospital--twenty mortal hours had passed in the interval--I came to suddenly, and as quickly passed away again.

How long I lay in this state I know not, I shall never know, except as I have learned it from those who watched over me with a tenderness and solicitude that, while "memory holds a seat in this distracted globe," I shall ever most gratefully remember. At that time, as returning consciousness came back to me, I could only then recall "a mass of things, but nothing distinctly." It was the day of Nashville. Who that participated in that splendid action can ever forget it? GRANT had captured the garrison of Vicksburg, and driven Bragg pell mell from his investment of Chattanooga; SHERMAN had forced Hood out of every stronghold, from the Tennessee to Atlanta; but here at Nashville, on the 15th day of December, 1864, our gallant chieftain, the sturdy hero [George] THOMAS, having gathered into his hand the scattered forces with which he had been left to oppose the victorious army of Hood, hurled them like a thunderbolt upon the astounded rebels, over line after line of breastworks, until a few panic-stricken men, without organization or discipline, stole across the Tennessee a hundred miles from Nashville, never again to attempt a campaign.

Now, as I look back, I more completely realize the magnitude of the occasion. I remember how our General spoke to us on that morning. His words come to me in all the startling fervor of his eloquent appeal. "Hood successful," he said, "Kentucky lies open to his victorious army; our own Ohio becomes his prey. Fire, destruction and death, will mark his onward march and desolation every foot of his way. Best him here, and the last hope of the despairing Confederacy expires. Forward--follow me!" He was gone, I saw his heroic form borne here and there at the head of the advancing column, it rose, it fell; it rose again and then, alas! I saw him no more forever. Even then--there--at that moment, I, too, went down, and my eyes looked not again upon the field of battle during the short remnant that remained of the war.

But to return. When in that low, long room I lay tossing with fever each day, wilder became my fancy. At times, it required the strength of both my nurses to keep me on my pallet. Only then, a hemorrhage stayed my frantic purpose. I fell back, fainting; and when at length restored, the same sweet, sad face looked upon me that for hours, days, weeks, had watched with the gentleness and devotion of a woman.

One day he left me. Oh! I shall never forget that day! Those around me were rapidly convalescing and, though I blush to say it, were taunting me with my religion!

"How now, Jew, how is thy pulse? Hast thou any more of thy gibberish-Hebrew thou call'st it, forsooth--to worry us withal?" "Say thy prayers like a Christian, idiot, forswear thy stock, pray the Lord Jesus to forgive thy sins and die in salvation!"

"Halloe, thou unbelieving son of Abraham, hast thou got a piece of pork at length into thy clutches? No! Well, then, it were better that thou had'st, for until thou eatest swine's flesh, thou never can'st be saved!"

I was too weak for remonstrance at the time, but, as I grew stronger, I found voice to give utterance to words that smote them with silence. That passage from Shylock, especially, struck one--the least intellectual, as he was the most brutal, among them. "Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath now a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same Summer and Winter, as a Christian? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"

"No!" I added, "No, for centuries we have borne your oppression, tyranny, persecution, scorn, contumely, hatred and violence, but we have never lifted our hands in revenge. Yet we can feel, and do feel, as we have felt, as I now feel, the wrong you put upon us, upon me. 'Vengeance is mine' saith the Lord, and to Him we look for justice. Think not, if Heaven yet spare me, you can change or alter by your unthinking cruel words my heart's devotion to that noble flag--not less the emblem of freedom than toleration. We have both fought and bled. My constancy will be true to the last!"

When I again awoke, for this effort so prostrated me that I fell away into the likeness of death, the same spiritually pale face that had so often watched beside me, looked down upon me and a voice musical with pathos said: "How dost thou do today, Benoni*!"

"Better, much better."

"I am rejoiced to hear it, for I have come to take thee hence to the home of our kindred. Dost thou think thou canst bear to be removed."

"Oh, yes, take me hence," I said.

And gently I was borne to the abode of one of my own people. Here I remained, rapidly convalescing, till one morning, in the early days of April, the booming cannon shook the city with convulsions of delight and joy as the glad news ran from house to house, "Lee has surrendered, the war is over, glory to G-d on High, peace once more, Hallelu-ah, hallele-ah!"

In those days of convalescence, I sought to gain from my host--a kind, though not over-intelligent co-religionist of Teutonic extraction [Peixotto was a Sephardi.] some inkling of the to me mysterious friend who (he had recently left me and gone to the North), had so tenderly nursed me and whom I shall always believe under Providence, saved my life. All I could gain, was the simple intelligence that he was a civilian who had come South to visit our armies and to behold a battle. He had found me where my companions were compelled to leave me, in a piece of woods; dismounted from his own horse and bore me to the nearest hospital. Here he had watched beside me and nursed me for a month. Called home to the North, he had come again, and again had cared for and rescued me as 'twere from the "jaws of death." Removing me to the abode where I now found myself fast recovering, and having seen me fairly on the road to life, he paid all my bills and departed--leaving only a note--a little missive behind, to be opened on the day I should leave Nashville. This is all that I could learn.

The day for my departure arrived, at length, I had taken my place on the train for Louisville, the engine whistled and away we went, even as I tore open the envelope and read these lines, "Brother, the Good Shepherd hath restored thee, thy life is given back to thee again, I have been but a humble instrument in the hands of a mightier Power. Chance drew me to the spot on the field of battle where stricken you lay, life's purple current ebbing fast away. I stanched your wounds and bore you safely to where, on awakening to consciousness, you discovered me. I nursed, and when I could no more do so--from inexorable duty that called me elsewhere--caused others to nurse thee. Thou art at length restored, thou hast passed through the valley of the shadow and hath escaped death. Thou art free. And in the simple dignity of man, standest apart untempted; do not lose the great occasion thou hast plucked from misery, nor play the spendthrift, but use it nobly. We may meet again. If we do not, do even as I have done, whenever thou findest the opportunity, then shall thou be truly in fact, what thou art, and I am to the last A BEN BERITH."

The mystery was solved--I knew my preserver now. Five years before, I had linked myself with the noble Order of B'nai B'rith, and had borne on my person since I had entered the service a little silver badge with those eloquent words, no Ben Berith can ever be stranger to--that appeal he can never pass by. I had been "recognized" and to be "recognized" was to be rescued and saved. And so passing from beneath the clouds, the dank dew of death, I came out in the sunshine, the warmth and gladness of life. I put on my regalia anew--the regalia, not of human hands but of divine workmanship. I bear it in my eye, my heart, my hand, and even so, as I would that man should do unto me, even so will I do--unto all men. B.F.P.

*Benoni--Hebrew for "son of pain", but another translation is "ordinary one"

From: Jews in the Civil War

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