'Garden of Eden' to Arkansas: Patrick Cleburne's final ride

Killed at the Battle of Franklin, Confederate General Patrick Cleburne was buried at a cemetery
behind St. John's Church near Columbia, Tenn.  The Irish-born officer's remains were disinterred  
and re-buried in Arkansas in 1870. (CLICK ON ALL IMAGES TO ENLARGE.)

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For nearly six years, Confederate General Patrick Cleburne's remains rested among the oaks and magnolias in a church cemetery near Columbia, Tenn. A comrade of the Irish-born officer called the spot as "beautiful as the Garden of Eden — seemingly a fit place for pure spirits to dwell, and for the haunts of angels."

In late April 1870, a delegation from Arkansas arrived at St. John's Church Cemetery for the disinterment of Cleburne's body for reburial in his adopted state. The division commander had been killed during a charge against Union breastworks at Franklin on Nov. 30, 1864 — one of six Confederate generals to die of wounds suffered in the battle. Two of them — Otho Strahl and Hiram B. Granbury — also rested at the cemetery with Cleburne before they also were removed and re-buried elsewhere.

The delegation found Cleburne buried in a gray uniform in a "good state of preservation," according to a local newspaper, but the "coffin was very much decayed, and not a particle of flesh was remaining on the skeleton."

       PANORAMA: Patrick Cleburne was buried at left, by the trees nearest the church.
                                    (Click at upper right for full-screen experience.)

Until 1870, Cleburne was buried in the cemetery behind historic St. John's Church, built from 1839-1842.

Historical sign and Civil War Trails marker in front of St. John's Church.

On April 28, while en route to Helena, Ark., Cleburne's hometown, the group stopped at the train depot in Memphis for a procession through the city with his remains. If anyone doubted the popularity of the "Stonewall Jackson of the West," those doubts were erased that spring afternoon. While a band played a funeral march, Cleburne devotees placed the coffin containing "Arkansas' greatest soldier" in a hearse for a procession called "perhaps the finest ever witnessed in the city."

"The cosmopolitanism of an interior city was never more thoroughly illustrated than in the conduct of Memphis ... when its whole population went forth to tender a deserved tribute of respect to the memories and virtues of a great soldier," the local newspaper said, omitting any reference to its Black population.

"Helena and Memphis, Arkansas and Tennessee, yesterday wept side by side over Cleburne's bier," the Daily Appeal wrote, "and if Helena did not claim the body of the illustrious soldier, that it may find its final resting place within the city which was his home, Helena would concede to Memphis the trust of giving worthy sepulture to the most famous of all citizen soldiery of Arkansas."

War-time image of Confederate
 president Jefferson Davis, 
who was in the procession with
Patrick Cleburne's remains
in Memphis in 1870.
.

Through the heart of Memphis, the city's leading citizens — politicians, lawyers, merchants and others — joined the procession with Cleburne's hearse. Members of the city fire department, Confederate veterans' organizations, the Irish Literary Society, Fenian Brotherhood and Hibernian Mutual Relief Society also attended the solemn event. In an open carriage sat the most notable attendees, including ex-Confederate generals Frank Cheatham and Gideon Pillow and the former president of the Confederacy himself, 61-year-old Jefferson Davis.

His head uncovered, Davis stood at attention "straight as an Indian" as he watched Cleburne's coffin carried from the depot to the hearse. "The whole history of the past ten years," a reporter noted, "ran like a flash of lightning over Mr. Davis' expressive face. There was an intensity of feeling and thought written upon the strongly marked lineaments of his eloquent features that unfolded the profoundest emotions."

Added the reporter about Davis:

There were tears in his eyes and his face expressed sympathies, emotions and strong memories, seemingly shared by none of those who sat beside him. As a statesman and soldier — we read it there — Mr. Davis was relentless in direct paths of duty. The duty of the hour often drew a veil over the heart and the inner man, while the fate of an empire was dependent on his words and acts [and] was rarely revealed to the outer world. His heart was on his lips yesterday, and there was the tenderness of woman's love in his soulful eyes when Cleburne's encoffined body was borne into his presence."

Other ex-Confederates and a few U.S. soldiers followed the hearse, decorated with black plumes, crepe and green ribbon. Cleburne's remains lay in a "handsome metallic case, the lid of which was closely screwed down so that even a glance at the remains through the glass was impossible." A large cross wreath and white flowers rested atop his coffin.

Grave marker for Patrick
 Cleburne at Confederate Cemetery
 in Helena, Ark.
(Find A Grave)

A reporter found a crowd "composed of every nationality, all anxious to pay the last tribute of respect to the departed hero," an Arkansas newspaper noted. "The whole white population shared in the imposing demonstration. The streets along the line of march were thronged with people.

"Balconies and windows were everywhere filled with people who watched the hearse and its multitude of silent followers with eager interest," it added. "The bells were tolled, and skillful musicians burdened the air with mournful melody."

Street cars became hopelessly stuck along the route because of the huge crowd. "There were countless vehicles," the newspaper reported, "in which were seated the matrons and youth and beauty of the city."

After the procession ended, pallbearers removed Cleburne's coffin from the hearse and placed it aboard the steamer George W. Cheek, docked in the Mississippi River. Before the vessel departed for the trip downriver to Helena, hundreds of Cleburne's former army comrades crowded to view the coffin that contained "the sacred dust" of the beloved Confederate general.

 "At Helena the same ceremonies will be gone through with," the Arkansas newspaper noted, "when all that is left of the immortal Cleburne will be conveyed to their final resting place.

"Peace to his ashes."

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SOURCES

• Memphis Daily Appeal, April 29, 1870
• The Southern Standard, Arkadelphia, Ark., May 14, 1870
• Public Ledger, Memphis, Tenn., May 3, 1870
• The Herald and Mail, Columbia, Tenn., April 28, 1870

'Secret' stash: What public doesn't see at Springfield Armory

This Enfield, part of the "secret" stash at the Springfield Armory, has bullet embedded 
near the trigger guard. (SEE VIDEO, PHOTO BELOW.)

A fraction of the collection of Civil War rifles in the Springfield Armory storage room.
(CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.)

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If you've been to the Springfield (Mass.) Armory National Historic Site, you probably were impressed with the Civil War weaponry. Hands-down my favorite exhibit there is the organ of Springfield muskets, certainly a work of art. But only about half of the Civil War weapons in the Armory's collection is on public display.

During an hour-long visit to the Armory recently, curator Alex MacKenzie and National Park Service ranger Susan Ashman showed off some of what's currently not on public view -- the "secret" stash, so to speak.  In a massive, temperature-controlled storage room,  rows of meticulously tagged Civil War weaponry are kept in huge cabinets. Look but don't touch were my orders from MacKenzie, who carefully handled the artifacts while wearing gloves. Here are some of my favorites from the "secret" stash:

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A 'DINGED-UP' PATTERN 1853 BRITISH ENFIELD

The name "R.H. Weakley" -- perhaps a 42nd Tennessee private who was killed at the 
Battle of Franklin  -- is carved into the stock. (WATCH SHORT VIDEO ABOVE FOR MORE.)

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A PIKE FOR A MADMAN? OR A MARTYR?

Springfield Armory curator Alex MacKenzie holds one of the pikes fiery abolitionist John Brown intended
 to use for his slave insurrection in Harpers Ferry, Va. The pikes were made in Collinsville, Conn.

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WHAT WAS IN JEFFERSON DAVIS' BAGGAGE?

Manufactured in Paris, this circa-1855 big-game rifle reputedly was found among the belongings 
of Jefferson Davis, the former president of the Confederacy, when he was captured on May 10, 1865.

A close-up of the weapon shows the fine French craftsmanship. (READ MORE HERE.)

The rifle's maker -- F.P. Devisme -- is engraved on the barrel. The .74-caliber weapon was 
designed to fire exploding projectiles. It has been in the Springfield Armory collection since 1887.

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A BLOWN-OUT RIFLE BARREL

Perhaps the sad demise of this Springfield musket was caused by a Union soldier who forgot 
to remove the tompion before he fired it.

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A DRAWER OF CONFEDERATE SWORDS

For most of the Civil War weaponry in its collection,  such as these swords, the Armory does not 
have provenance. The 12 edged weapons may have been battlefield pickups during the war.

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Then & Now: Jefferson Davis' mansion in conquered Richmond

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Two words describe my first and only trip to the White House of the Confederacy: bewildering and frustrating. After I made my way to downtown Richmond, it took me at least an hour to find Jefferson Davis' three-story executive mansion in the tangled jumble of buildings and traffic in the former Rebel capital. Things sure were a lot different in 1984 B.G. (Before Google Maps) President Lincoln, the Union army and Northern photographers must have had a much easier time after Richmond fell in April 1865.

After he arrived in Richmond about 2 p.m. on April 4, Lincoln and his son Tad "proceeded at once," The New York Times reported, to Davis' mansion on East Clay Street. It was an especially eventful day for the president's son, who was celebrating his 12th birthday. Davis, of course, was nowhere to be found, having fled the city days earlier. Lincoln only toured the first floor because he thought it was improper to visit the second floor of another man's home. After he entered Davis' office, the president settled into one his adversary's easy chairs. "It was a supreme moment," a witness to the historic event recalled. (Hat tip: Kevin Morrow's post on The New York Times' Disunion page.)

Interestingly, when Union General Edward Ord posed for a photo with his wife and daughter at Davis' mansion that April, the table on which Robert E. Lee signed the terms of surrender days earlier appeared in the background.

To create the Then & Now image, I used a photograph shot after Richmond's fall by E.G. Fowx, who was employed by Mathew Brady, and a cropped Google Street View image from August 2014. An enlargement of the "Then" image includes interesting details: a Union soldier standing guard at the home of the former Rebel leader and perhaps Brady himself next to him.

For all the Then & Now images on my blog, go here.

At least one Union soldier stood guard at Jefferson Davis' mansion in Richmond in the
 spring of 1865. Is that famed Civil War photographer Mathew Brady beside him?
This is an enlargement of the image at the top of this post. 

Union General Edward Ord, his wife and child posed for a photo at Jefferson Davis' Richmond
 residence in April 1865, after the fall of the city.  (Library of Congress)