A Meteor Shining Brightly: Essays on Major General Patrick R. Cleburne

In this collection of well-written and lucid essays, the life, career, and impact of Irish Major General Patrick R. Cleburne is definitively reassessed. A Meteor Shining Brightly corrects inaccuracies in published accounts of Cleburns life, and explores aspects of Cleburnes life that made him unique among Civil War generals.

This collection of essays by various historians covers Cleburnes life from his immigration as a young man to the United States, his experiences becoming a self-made man in Arkansas, and how he joined the Confederate Army to defend the state in which he and his family had been given a fresh start. His rise through the ranks was limited because he had advocated arming slaves to support the Confederate cause. He died during a vicious charge on Franklin, Tennessee and Jefferson Davis honored him with the nickname, "Stonewall of the West."