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Despite turning back Gen. William T. Sherman’s army on the north end of Missionary Ridge and two days later stopping Gen. “Fighting Joe” Hooker’s army in Ringgold, Ga., Confederate Gen. Patrick Ronayne Cleburne is still largely unknown to most Chattanoogans.
Where did the South acquire such a man? Certainly not in an expected way.
Cleburne was born in County Cork, Ireland. His family was protestant in a mostly Catholic Ireland. They were modest income gentry. Cleburne’s father was a doctor who died when Cleburne was 15.
Cleburne wished to follow in his father’s footsteps. However, when he applied to Trinity College in Dublin, he was rejected.