Series 1 - William & Anne Cleburne letters

119pp

The National Library of Ireland provided Kerby A. Miller with photocopies of the Cleburne Letters from which Miller created his transcripts. The original manuscripts are held in the National Library of Ireland [call number MS 15588].

Materials pertaining to letters written by siblings Anne and William Cleburne from New Orleans and Ohio, respectively, to their mother in Ovens, County Cork in 1849 and 1850.
In her letter, Anne, newly arrived with her brothers in New Orleans, expresses both her fascination with the city and the ‘unnatural sight’ of the slave market. In his letter, William marvels at the degree of socioeconomic equality in the western United States compared to the East and South, and notes the southern aristocracy is based upon slavery. Both letters are also aesthetically notable for their use of cross-writing.
The series includes: excerpts from publications discussing Major General Patrick Cleburne, brother of William and Anne who was a major figure for the Confederate Army in the Western Theater of the American Civil War and the posthumous namesake of Cleburne County, Arkansas and Cleburne, Texas; multiple drafts of Kerby A. Miller and Beth Ruffin McIntyre’s transcripts of Anne and William’s letters; photocopied reproductions of the Cleburne letters; and photocopies of published histories of Ohio and Oregon where Anne and William ultimately settled.