Josh The Lighthouse Guy
Major
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2012
- Location
- Jupiter, FL
Patrick Cleburne was Irish and immigrated to the USA only a decade before the war. He had no dog in the slavery fight; he was a pharmacist and lawyer in a river town who hadn't settled in the South for any reason related to slavery. Cleburne was determined to stand by his closed friends in Helena who accepted him despite the common racial prejudices of the era against his ethnicity, and also saw the Confederates as a parallel to Ireland's desire to be free of the British.
One of Cleburne's friends in Helana, perhaps his best friend, was Thomas Hindman. Among other things, Hindman joined Cleburne in opposing the Know Nothings (Cleburne obviously did, as he would have been one of their targets). The two even got into a gunfight in the Helena streets against some Know Nothings. However, Hindman was also openly pro-Slavery. He favored resuming the international slave trade and condemned Hinton Helper's Impending Crisis - a book by a white Southerner about how chattel slavery was bad for white Southerners.
Do we know if Hindman ever found out about Cleburne's proposal to free and arm slaves to fight for the Confederacy?
Is there any surviving correspondence between the two men on the subject of slavery, or accounts of them having debated the issue of slavery?
(I have not read any biographies of either general.)
One of Cleburne's friends in Helana, perhaps his best friend, was Thomas Hindman. Among other things, Hindman joined Cleburne in opposing the Know Nothings (Cleburne obviously did, as he would have been one of their targets). The two even got into a gunfight in the Helena streets against some Know Nothings. However, Hindman was also openly pro-Slavery. He favored resuming the international slave trade and condemned Hinton Helper's Impending Crisis - a book by a white Southerner about how chattel slavery was bad for white Southerners.
Do we know if Hindman ever found out about Cleburne's proposal to free and arm slaves to fight for the Confederacy?
Is there any surviving correspondence between the two men on the subject of slavery, or accounts of them having debated the issue of slavery?
(I have not read any biographies of either general.)
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