Marcellus Jerome Clarke (also called M. Jerome Clarke)
[Lowell Hayes Harrison, James C. Klotter, ''A New History of Kentucky''](_blank)
Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1997, p. 206 (1844 – March 15, 1865) was a
Confederate
Confederacy or confederate may refer to:
States or communities
* Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities
* Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...
captain who in 1864 became one of
Kentucky's most famous
guerrillas
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tacti ...
. He was rumored to be "
Sue Mundy", a character publicized by
George Prentice
Dr. George Prentice (1871–1948) is a Scottish missionary and served as a vicar for the Free Church of Scotland. He was one of the first to conduct missionary activities in southeastern Africa (modern-day Malawi) and was known for baptizing M ...
, editor of the ''
Louisville Journal''.
Confederate soldier
Marcellus Jerome Clarke was born in
Franklin, Kentucky
Franklin is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Simpson County, Kentucky, United States. The county is located on the south central border of the state, and its population was 10,176 at the 2020 census.
Kentucky Downs, formerly ...
, in 1844. At age 17 in 1861 he enlisted as M. Jerome Clarke in the 4th Kentucky Infantry,
1st Kentucky "Orphan" Brigade,
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...
(CSA). While with the 4th Kentucky Clarke was captured at
Fort Donelson
Fort Donelson was a fortress built early in 1862 by the Confederacy during the American Civil War to control the Cumberland River, which led to the heart of Tennessee, and thereby the Confederacy. The fort was named after Confederate general Da ...
and later escaped from Camp Morgan. He saw action with the 4th Kentucky at the
Battle of Chickamauga
The Battle of Chickamauga, fought on September 19–20, 1863, between United States, U.S. and Confederate States of America, Confederate forces in the American Civil War, marked the end of a Union Army, Union offensive, the Chickamauga Campaign ...
.
Clarke was reassigned to Morgan's Men, the unit headed by
Brig. Gen.
Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointed ...
John Hunt Morgan
John Hunt Morgan (June 1, 1825 – September 4, 1864) was an American soldier who served as a Confederate general in the American Civil War of 1861–1865.
In April 1862, Morgan raised the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry Regiment (CSA) and fought in t ...
. By then Clarke was a captain.
["Jerome Clarke ('Sue Mundy'), Kentucky Historical Marker Number 540"](_blank)
''Kentucky Sue Mundy Markers''. Kentucky.gov. Accessed 3 October 2006. While with Morgan's Men, he took part in Morgan's last raid through Kentucky in the summer of 1864.
Confederate guerrilla
Following Morgan's death on September 4, 1864, Clarke formed his own
guerrilla band and returned to Kentucky in October. He raided throughout the state, killing Union soldiers and destroying supplies. His raids seemed to inspire the ''Louisville Journals stories of the infamous "
Sue Mundy", and caused
Maj. Gen.
Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...
Stephen G. Burbridge, military governor of Kentucky, substantial embarrassment. Combined with the fact that Clarke's gang (referred to by the ''Journal'' as "Mundy's Gang") had joined with
William Quantrill's Raiders, Clarke was seen as a dangerous enemy of the Union. On the night of February 2, 1865, this joint force of Quantrill and Clarke rode into Lair Station, Kentucky, and burned the railroad depot and freight cars. A week later on February 8, 1865, the guerrillas killed three soldiers, took four more prisoner and destroyed the remnants of a wagon train.
Capture and hanging
On March 12, 1865, 50 Union soldiers from the 30th Wisconsin Infantry, under the command of Maj. Cyrus Wilson, who were tasked with capturing Clarke and his gang, surrounded a tobacco barn ten miles south of
Brandenburg
Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...
near
Breckinridge County. Four Union soldiers were wounded in the ensuing altercation, but Clarke was captured. With him were Henry Medkiff and
Henry C. Magruder
Henry Clay Magruder (1843 – October 20, 1865) was a Confederate soldier, convicted war criminal, and guerrilla during the American Civil War. Born near Lebanon, Kentucky, he took part in several major Western theater battles. Still, he is bes ...
, wounded in an earlier attack.
Maj. Wilson escorted the three men to Brandenburg, where they boarded a steamer for Louisville. Military authorities kept Clarke's trial a secret, and the verdict had been decided the day before the trial. He pleaded to be treated as a prisoner of war but was tried as a guerrilla.
On March 14, military authorities planned Clarke's execution, even though the trial had not started. At the brief hearing Clarke was said to have "stood firm and spoke with perfect composure."
[Vest, Stephen M. "Was She or Wasn't He?", ''Kentucky Living'', November 1995, 25-26, 42.] Clarke stated that he was a regular Confederate soldier and that the crimes he was being charged with he had not committed, or they had been committed by Quantrill. During the three-hour trial Clarke was not allowed counsel or witnesses for his defense. Three days after his capture Union authorities scheduled Clarke for public hanging just west of the corner of 18th and Broadway in Louisville.
On March 15, Rev. J.J. Talbott visited the 20-year-old Clarke in prison and notified him that he would be hanged that afternoon. Reportedly Clarke knelt and prayed, asking Talbott to baptize him. With Clarke dictating, the minister wrote four letters for him: to Clarke's aunt, his cousin, a young lady named Elizabeth Lashbrook- his brother John Thomas Clarke's wife, and to his fiancée.
Clarke's last requests were for his body to be sent to his aunt and stepmother in Franklin to be buried in his Confederate uniform, next to his parents.
When the carriage arrived at the gallows, Clarke gave one last statement to the crowd. He said: "I am a regular Confederate soldier-not a guer
lla . . . I have served in the Army for nearly four years . . . I fought under General Buckner at Fort Donelson and I belonged to General Morgan's command when I entered Kentucky."
His last words were: "I believe in and die for the Confederate cause." Several thousand people were estimated to have attended Clarke's execution, attracted by rumors that he was "Sue Mundy".
After authorities cut Clarke's body down from the scaffold, some witnesses cut off buttons from his coat as keepsakes. Police arrested three men for fighting over his hat.
On October 29, 1865, Union authorities hanged Henry Magruder behind the walls of the Louisville Military Prison. He had been allowed to heal from his wounds before being hanged. Before his death Magruder wrote his memoir and declared he was the real "Sue Mundy".
[Henry Magruder, ''Three Years In The Saddle: The Life and Confession of Henry Magruder: The Original Sue Munday, The Scourge of Kentucky'', (Published by his captor Maj. Cyrus J. Wilson, Louisville, Kentucky, 1865)] Thus ended the careers of two famous Kentucky guerrillas.
See also
*
Louisville in the American Civil War
Louisville in the American Civil War was a major stronghold of Union forces, which kept Kentucky firmly in the Union. It was the center of planning, supplies, recruiting and transportation for numerous campaigns, especially in the Western Theate ...
References
External links
*Bryan S. Bus
"Guerrilla Warfare in Kentucky"*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Marcellus Jerome
1844 births
1865 deaths
1865 crimes in the United States
19th-century executions of American people
19th-century executions by the United States
Confederate States Army officers
Confederate States Army personnel who were court-martialed
Bushwhackers
Executed people from Kentucky
Orphan Brigade
People executed by the United States military by hanging
People from Franklin, Kentucky
People of Kentucky in the American Civil War