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Entered into eternal rest, at Nashville, Tenn., on March 17, 1922, John Archer Clarke, Virginian and Confederate soldier. He was of French and English ancestry, lineal descendant of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and the youngest child of Louisa Crenshaw and John G. Clarke, of Virginia, born June 24, 1847. Left an orphan at the age of nine years, he was sent to a private school at Petersburg, Va., and was preparing for a military education when the war broke out. At the first call for troops the little orphan lad went to the recruiting office (with shoulders heavily padded, blocks of wood in his boots, and accompanied by his black boy) asked to be allowed to fight. He was told to wait and eat more bread and butter. Again, in 1862, he made another attempt, but, being under-sized, he was unable to carry regulation equipment and was again turned down. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston had been a classmate of his father's at West Point, and they had served together in the Mexican War, and through General Johnston's influence young Clarke at last entered the service of the Confederacy as a clerk in the quartermaster's department in the fall of 1862; later he was transferred to Mahone's Division, where he did wonderful work as a special envoy, and won the admiration of General Johnston, who sought to allow him to enter field service, but he was captured while on a special mission. However, he made his escape three weeks later, carrying with him valuable papers, which he turned over to Johnston. He was again taken prisoner in December, 1864, and was held at Fortress Monroe until late in April, 1865. He never took the oath of allegiance. Mr. Clarke ws a gentleman in the old-fashioned sense of the word-a lover of sports, clean of speech, well versed in the history of the State and country, and he had traveled extensively throughout the United States. He gave up his medical career whil in the last year of the course, and went into the business of saddlery and harness-making. He became an expert in this work and won many prizes for it. His love for his native State, Virgnia, was almost idolatry. He was a true friend, a frank and fearless enemy. He became a White Leaguer when he first went to New Orleans to live, and was active in the fight against the Kellog faction. He was also a member of the Ku-Klux-Klan. Comrade Clarke was married to Miss Marie Anna McCabe, a Creole belle of New Orleans, descendant of an old aristostic family of French and Scotch ancestry. Four daughters were born to them, two surviving him. He was proud of his country, of his State, and he taught his children to the love the Southland.
SOURCE: Confederate Veteran Magazine, June, 1922.
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