Damian shields is an engaging young scholar. Hes an archaeologist by trade. Hes an historian by emotion and2y he gets the way you have to do those things. Lets not decide objects and places dont matter, only the words someone wrote on a piece of oh paper. It all matters. Its all evidence of how history unfolded and its impact on us today. Yesterday was a great pleasure of mean. I picked pupup mr. Clay and we went over to Stones River National battlefield and i managed not to lose him totally in that battlefield. We kbolt over to franklin just in time it was sort of dusk. The perfect time to study a man. All of this together means we dm have a unique opportunity to have a perspective and learn from a perspective that sometimes we dont take in here in tennessee. We do have civil war historians aplenty. Sometimes you can shake a tree and a bunch fall down the. We dont get that International Perspective so often. I think we are all just blessed l < and honored to have damien among us today. So with with no further fanfare because i know who everyone came the here its not me. Its damien shields. [ applause ] good morning, everybody. I cant describe what an honor it is for me to be here. I spend all of my spare time looking at the irish and American Civil War. I spend most of my original career looking at the archaeology fields and how you can preserve battlefields. For years i looked at waes gone on in the city with incredible admiration. It is an International Standard to reclaim a battlefield from development. Vuo im unaware of another example thats been successful. With somebody like Patrick Claiborne involved makes it more memorable for me. I have to say i have been to a number of places around the south in particular over recent months. I have never enjoyed the welcome i have had to a city over the last two days. Really an incredible city and a great state that you have here. This is the ideal preparation for when you are giving a talk. When we look at history we have a temptation to simplify it. We tried to place order oh on the past. Often looking at it as defining moments. Each making one and another less likely. We can look at a peoples lives, even our own lives in a similar way. Of course history, as with life is seldom as straightforward as this. The reality tends to be more opaque, more complex, more convoluted. Despite that, its a fascinating exercise to consider what might have been the key moments in one persons life, particularly the life of a historical figure. K3n the moments which set them on their path to what seemed to be their ultimate destiny. L e< i have spent a considerable amount of time studying irish immigrants impacted by the american civil bar. Many breathed their last on American Battlefields. This year, 150 years on oh, i have been fortunate to stand on oh some of the fields where many irish men fought. Places like the bloody angle and the dead angle at kenasaw. Each occasion i have traveled to battlegrounds i see eye thoughts turning to the irish who fought and died there. What were their personal stories . What became of their loved ones is this what were their Life Experiences which culminated in a premature death on the American Battlefield . We are here today to discuss one of those men and to wonder. What were the defining moments in patrick clayburns life. What led him from a childhood in rural county cork to the city of franklin where we are meeting here today. All of the 200,000 irish born men who fought in the American Civil War, being in confederate gray or union blue shared a common experience. It was a defining moment in their lives. That experience was immigration from the country of their birth. If we want to look at what led patrick to franklin, we first have to ask what led him to emigrate. The vast majority of immigrants came from poor backgrounds and were of the catholic faith. Such wasnt the case of patrick. The future Major General was born on the 16th of march, 1828, a little more than 6,000 kilometers from here. In the upstairs room of this house you see on the slide. Bright park cot tanl in a rural home not far to the west of cork city. His father joseph was a medical doctor from county tiperrary and his mother with was from a well to do land owning family from cove in county cork. Patrick was the third of four children born to the couple. He was baptized in nearby st. Marys protestant church. Q the clayburns lived a comfortable life of middle class professional family. In addition to his medical program technician, joseph was also the contract surgeon for a nearby british barracks. One of the things we often forget is that patrick grew to adulthood in ireland. He spent the vast majority of his life in ireland, not america. His experiences in the country of his birth formed his character. It is impossible for us to understand his achievements in america without first understanding his disappointments in ireland. The first of what we might term defining moments in patricks life came 18 months into it when his mother mary anne died. His father remarried quickly, wedding isabella stewart. This was the woman patrick would refer to asthma ma for the rest of his life and would follow him to america. For now that was all in the future. After josephs remarriage things looked bright for the family. Four more siblealings joined the growing brood. Dr. Clay burn was an upwardly mobile man and he decided to try his hand as a land owner and a farmer. He moved his family to the nearby local manor house you can see here. One of the few buildings thats smaller now than it was then. He rented it with 206 acres. Initially things went well for them. There seemed a real chance that they were set on the road to prosperity. What occurred next was one of the major factor and derped the familys emigration. On the 27th of november, 1843 dr. Joseph clayburn died. He was buried in st. Marys church where he still rests. He continued to combine the practice of medicine with farming and the revenue change placed them under economic strain, much like my voice. Patricks older brother returned from college to try to manage the estate. m soon 16yearold pat reck was en route to north cork. It had been decided he was to follow in his fathers foot steps and become a medical doctor. 5n with that in mind he started as an apprentice to surgeon dr. Thomas justice in a building he would have known well as a young man here. I want to turn to what is one of the most Important Documents when we want to look at patrick. Its these. The ledger entry records events reare lating to what with i think are the key formative experience in patricks early life. These are from the apothecary hall in dublin. In 1845 patrick applied to the city exams he needed to begin medical studies. He was rejected but told to try again the following year. He did try. In early 1846 he sat the exam. Though doubt hoping and probably expecting to set out on a path that would lead to security and comfort in the years x[fz29n but he failed. That failure altered the course of his life. If the 17yearold patrick clay burn had entered the apothecarys hall in 1846 it is unlikely his life would have led him to franklin and that we would be discussing him. These moments are fascinating. As it was, the young man was mortified by the failure and was unwilling to return home to cork. He was too ashamed to face his family. Instead he made the decision to enlist. A decision he ultimately regretted. More than a year passed in the or pi without anybody hearing from him. He never wrote home, nothing. Disappeared until a family friend and officer recognized anymore the ranks and informed his loved ones of his whereabouts. By now the year was 1847. A great irish famine was at its height. Private clayburn witnessed dreadful sights as he moved around the country, helping to keep peace. od3 v during those years, hunger and poverty forced many irish families to the emigrant boat. Although unaware at the time, patrick would see some of them again, many wearing union and confederate uniforms on the other side of the atlantic more than a decade later. The famine killed hundreds of thousands of the poor but had a heavy impact on struggling land own owners. Ever increasing rents and poor returns for produce forced patricks pa ma to consider emigrating to america. Patrick, eager to escape a life which had thus far offered only disappointment volunteered to lead the way. He succeeded in buying his discharge from the army for 20 pounds in september 1849 and then wasted little time. By november he was en route to new orleans where the 21yearold landed along with three siblings on christmas day. 21, a grown man. It is an kpanl radiation to say america proved the land of opportunity for patrick. His education, religion and finances placed him in a better position to exploit it than many of his poorer catholic counterparts but much hard work lay ahead. What america gave him was a chance to reset his life. Had he remained in ireland, his future may have forever been defined by his failed apothecary hall exam. In the United States a more flexible society offered the chance to undo past failings. This was an opportunity he took with both hands. After a a brief period in cincinnati he arrived in helena, arkansas in 1850. Over the course of the next decade he grew from a drugstore prescriptionist into a Major Community leader. By the end of 1851 he graduated into drugstore owner and began with membership of the Masonic Lodge in 1852. G reu he decided to study law. By 1855 he had become heavily involved in local politics. He was particularly active in efforts to prevent the american party, an antiimmigrant party referred to agx93s onothings from gaining a foothold in helena. He became firm friends with a democratic politician, thomas c. Hienman, later a confederate general. The two ran a paper together called the states right democrat. I think this illustrates how closely his views aligned with vt ds those of his friends and neighbors in arkansas. His Association Nearly got him killed in may 1856 when a politically motivated shoot out aimed at hienman left one man dead clayburn shot him and clayburn clinging to life with a bullet in the chest. As hienman went to congress clayburn focused on the law and business ventures. In 1860 his military experience and social position saw him elected captain of the yell rifles. With arkansass secession from the union the stage was set for the last three and a half years of patricks life. The last three and a half years. Thats what we know him for. Years which would immortalize him. The irish fought for the north and south during the American Civil War and did so for myriad reasons. Some enlisted to preserve the union or on the basis of states rights. Many did so for economic reasons, to take advantage of consistent pay and potential bounties. It was an irish tradition to do that. Others felt become part of american society. A large number fought for the preservation of society and that of their friends. Arkansas provided cleburne with something he never had in ireland a community of oh which he felt a part. A place that was filled with his friends and somewhere that he could call home. When Patrick Cleburne went to war in 1861 he went to war for arkansas. He was more than willing to die for arkansas. By the time Patrick Cleburne surveyed the scene that awaited him and his men at franklin on the 30th of november 1864 he was a Major General. Aee6ke commanding what was perhaps the most famed division in the western theater. Hed risen from captain of the l rifles to colonel of the 15th arkansas. Commanded a brigade at shiloh and led the division. Famed for his reliability, coolness under pressure and fighting qualities, cleburne and his men were the goto division of the army of tennessee, as demonstrated by actions in georgia in 1863 when they saved the Army Following the debacle at missionary ridge. An action for which cleburne would later earn the thanks of confederate congress. By the time he came to franklin it was a year in the past and the army lost more as a result of the campaign. That year had seen the prospects of ultimate confederate success dwindle to a flicker. Franklin provideded them with their greatest challenge. nbw when he topped Winstead Hill outside the town that november afternoon cleburne dismounted from his horse and, resting his field glasses on a stump he surveyed the positions. He took in the impressive enemy works thrown up by the yankees. He replaced his glasses and said aloud to nobody in particular, they are very formidable. The these events are linked with those that occurred after the south on a previous day. There was a golden opportunity to trap a significant portion of general scofields force. Having left steven lee to occupy in columbia. From where they converge ed in the rear and threatened the federal line retreat to nashville. The real possibility has presented itself. All of it appeared necessary for confederate ares to cut the cheathams core of which the division played a prominent role in the fight for spring hill. In one of the most inexplicable failures of the war and we can see how close it came behind us. When the fighting petered out the vital franklin turnpike remained untaken. Despite the fact that thousands of rebels went to camp only yards from it. Through the night, union troops that should have been trapped south of spring hill marched north past sleeping confederates to franklin. In later years, Union Soldiers would remember passing within plain view of the rebels. One recalling thousands burping brightly. We could see them moving around. Nobody was more aware. In his words, that was a great opportunity of striking the enemy for which we labored so long. The greatest this campaign offered and one of the greatest of the war. The confederates awoke on the 30th of november to find the enemy gone. Dc just who was to blame for the failure is a topic that continues to generate debate. There is little doubt as they moved toward franklin the events played on the minds of many confederate generals. In the 150 years since the battle, many speculated as to Patrick Cleburnes state of mind that 30th of november day. His fellow division commander, general john c. Brown recalled during the march that cleburne asked to see him. Riding into the fields alongside to talk. Describing how cleburne was angry and deeply hurt. The irish man had been told there was a failure at spring hill the previous day. He could not afford to rest under and intended to have the matter fully investigated. Brown recalled asking cleburne who he felt responsible for the failure. Cleburne placing ultimate culpability at the feet of his commander in chief. A Counter Point to the mind set has been put forward. Primarily based on recently discovered personal papers written by former army steven d. Lee. It recounts a conversation with general a. P. Stewart. Stewart heard on the 30th of oh november. He felt remorse for failure at spring hill. Due to the decision not to launch an attack there on the 29th. Stewart believed, and i quote immediately afterwards and said no such wait should be on his mind. In that feeling lost soon afterwards. Browns and lees accounts have to be treated with a degree of caution. Both were written after the war in the context of an acrimony use dispute as to who was to blame for the events at spring mill. Suffice it to say whatever cleburne felt he must undoubtedly have been disappointed and angry at the chance missed. ] ÷ as he surveyed the fortified Union Positions from Winstead Hill that disappointment must have been magnified. As cleburne waited for the troops to arrive that day, he whiled away the time with 5umuz of checkers with a member of his staff. The last down time of his life. The general gathered different colored leaves to use for gaming pieces. It wasnt long before he was ordered to the headquarters at the harrison house. Oxjn along with a number of others he expressed reservations about the proposed attack at franklin. Telling hood it would be a terrible and useless waste of life. However, hood determined the assault should go ahead. The commander instructed cleburne to form his division to the right of the columbia turnpike and to charge the works. The irish man replied, general, i will take the works or fall in the effort before riding off toward his men. The position assigned to cleburnes division on the right or east side of the columbia turnpike saw them aimed at a portion of the federal works dominated by a cotton gin owned by the carter family. Tix cleburne requested his decision be allowed to advance to reduce exposure across the open ground before deploying into line of battle for the final assault. Cleburne held a final meeting with his commanders atop breezy hill to outline what was expected of them. One of them daniel c. Goven reel called this meeting years later. I quote. General cleburne seemed to be more despondent than i ever saw him. I was the last one to receive instructions from him. As i saluteded and bade him goodbye i remarked, well, general, not many of us will get back to arkansas. He replied. Well, if we are to die, let us die like men. Cleburne left the meeting and v rode forward to some of his advanced Sharp Shooters on a rise called the private knob. Taking one of the scopes he surveyed the union works. He took a long look across the field before remarking they have three lines of works. His eyes swept back across the federal position before he added, they are all completed. He was soon thundering back down the pike to his forming division. n around 4 00 p. M. On the 30th of november with bands playing and [y flags fluttering, almost 20,000 men of the Confederate Army of tennessee swung forward into theh attack at franklin. They made for an awesome site. Among them was the figure of Patrick Cleburne wearing a new uniform jacket, white linen shirt. He was mounted on the borrowed horse as his regular animal red ua u e previous day at spring hill. Riding forward into action it seemed that, as promised, he was determined to lead by example ir and take his men over to federalr i works. Success for the advancing re