lawyer military politician statesman
Charles Clark was born on May 24, 1811 in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. He belonged to a family that reaches back to the first settlement of Maryland. His grandfather was a Revolutionary soldier, and his father James Clark was a pioneer settler in what is now the city of Cincinnati, Ohio. His mother was Charlotte Alter Clark.
Charles finished his education in Kentucky.
About 1831 Clark removed (about 1831) to Mississippi, and engaged in teaching in Natchez and in Yazoo and Jefferson counties. In the latter county, he became a devoted friend of General Thomas Hinds, an ex-congressman and a hero of the War of 1812, who was one of the most influential men in south Mississippi.
Clark entered politics as a Whig and was elected on that ticket to represent Jefferson County in the legislative sessions from 1838 to 1844. At the beginning of the Mexican War, he organized the Thomas Hinds Guards, which became part of the 2nd Mississippi Regiment of Volunteers, of which he later became colonel. In the great party and sectional conflicts that culminated in the Compromise of 1850, Clark followed the lead of Henry Clay. About that time, he removed to a plantation in Bolivar County, Mississippi. His new constituents elected him to represent them in the legislative sessions from 1856 to 1861.
Meantime in 1857, he was defeated as the Whig candidate for Congress by his old commander, Reuben Davis. He was chosen a delegate to the Democratic State Convention of 1860, and to the national conventions at Charleston and Baltimore, in which latter conventions he supported the Breckinridge faction. As a candidate for delegate to the Mississippi Secession Convention, Clark declared for secession without delay but was defeated by Miles H. McGehee, who insisted that before taking such a step Mississippi should await the cooperation of other Southern states. In the convention, McGehee found the sentiment for immediate secession so strong that he changed his position and voted with the majority.
After the state seceded, Clark was elected one of the first four brigadier-generals of Mississippi and was later advanced to the rank of major-general. When the state troops were turned over to the Confederacy, he became brigadier-general in the Confederate army. He was wounded in the battle of Shiloh but was soon able to reenter the service. In the attack on Baton Rouge in July 1862, he was wounded so severely that his comrades could not move him from the field, and he became a Federal prisoner. He was taken to New Orleans for treatment, and his wife was allowed to pass through the lines to nurse him. As he was never afterward able to walk without crutches, he had to retire from military service.
He was elected governor of Mississippi, practically without opposition in 1863, and was reelected in 1864. When General Richard Taylor surrendered at Meridian on May 4, 1865, Clark issued a call for the legislature to meet in special session. In his last message to this body he referred to the assassination of President Lincoln as follows: "For this act of atrocity, so repugnant to the instincts of our hearts, you feel, I am sure, in common with the whole people, the profound sentiment of detestation." The legislature was in session only about an hour, when the report came that General Osband, of the Federal army, had received orders to arrest the members.
Clark was taken to Fort Pulaski, near Savannah, Georgia, as a prisoner, but was soon released and permitted to return to his home. In reply to an invitation to address the new legislature on October 18, 1865, he wrote that he was "still a prisoner of State and on parole," and that it would be improper for him to accept the invitation, but he expressed a hope that the State would soon be restored to "equal political rights with her sister States." When his party returned to power (1876), he was appointed chancellor of his district, which position he held until his death a year later.
Charles Clark was originally a member of the Whig Party. In the late fifties, he changed his views on secession and became a Democrat.
Clark was married to Ann Eliza Darden. They had three children.
1786-1859
1852-1905
1791-1844
1826-1909
1830-1898
1818-1875
1840-1915
1847-1929
