Charles Clark

            Brigadier General and Governor of Mississippi

                                          1811-1877

                     "I am the duly and constitutionally elected Governor

                        of the State of Mississippi, and would resist, if in

                                  my power, to the last extremity...."

                                              Governor Charles Clark  to Union General E.D. Osband, 1865

       Charles Clark was born in Lebanon, Warren County, Ohio, May 24, 1811. He

received his education in Kentucky, and moved to Mississippi about 1831, where he taught

school for a time. Later a planter and a staunch Whig adherent of Henry Clay, he served

in the State Legislature in from 1838 to 1844,  and in the Mexican War  as Colonel

of the Second Mississippi Infantry. In 1860, Clark choose to switch political parties, and

became a Democrat, and a delegate to the conventions in Charleston and Baltimore  in

1860, where he supported  John Cabell Breckinridge for the presidency.  He was early

appointed  Brigadier General, and later  Major General of Mississippi State Troops.  After

the acceptance of  the Mississippi Regiments into Confederate Service,  he was appointed

Brigadier General to rank from May 22, 1861.

       General Clark  commanded  a Brigade in General Albert Sidney Johnston's army in

Kentucky, and  at  the battle of Shiloh, where he was severely wounded  in the shoulder at

the opening of the battle.  Clark returned to command  in time to participate in the battle

of Baton Rouge where he lead a Division. Clark was again severely wounded, his hip

being shattered by a minie' ball.  Captured on the field, and thinking the wound to be

mortal, the Federals allowed Clark to be taken to New Orleans  to his personal physician.

Clark would live, but was made a permanent invalid, having to use crutches or a cane for

the rest of his life.

        General Clark returned to Mississippi, and was elected Governor in the fall of 1863.

He served in the office until arrested by Federal authorities in the Spring of 1865.  He was

imprisoned for a time in Fort Pulaski, Georgia, but returned to Mississippi upon his

release. Denied any role in politics for the time being, Clark  returned to the practice of

law and the management of  his planatation "Doro" in Bolivar County, Mississippi.

Clark served as Chancellor of his district from 1876 until his death on December 18, 1877,

at his plantation, where he was buried.

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