Charles Clark (governor)

Clark was born in Lebanon, Ohio, near Cincinnati, on May 24, 1811 and subsequently moved to Mississippi. He is the great grandfather of Judge Charles Clark who served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit from 1969 to 1992 and was the chairman of the United States Judicial Conference.

In the late 1830s and early 1840s, Clark, a lawyer, represented a settler in a dispute with some Choctaw Native Americans over land in the Mississippi Delta. The dispute led to a series of lawsuits before the Mississippi Supreme Court. The settler ultimately prevailed, and gave Clark a large tract of land between Beulah, Mississippi and the Mississippi River as his legal fee. In the late 1840s, Clark formed a plantation on the land, naming it Doe-Roe, pseudonyms commonly used in the legal profession to represent unnamed or unknown litigants (e.g., John Doe, Roe v. Wade). The state of literacy being what it was at the time, however, the plantation came to be known by its phonic representation, Doro. According to archives at Delta State University, "The plantation grew to over 5,000 acres (20 km²) and became the most prosperous in the region, operating until 1913. It was prominent in the social, political and economic affairs of Bolivar County."[1]

Clark was also active in state politics, being elected as member of the Mississippi House of Representatives several times. During the Mexican-American War he served as Colonel of the 2nd Mississippi Regiment of Volunteers.[2]

Following the secession of Mississippi in early 1861, Clark was appointed as a brigadier general in the Mississippi 1st Corps, a state militia organization that later entered the Confederate States Army. He commanded the brigade at engagements in Kentucky and then a division under Leonidas Polk at the Battle of Shiloh, where he was slightly wounded. He was promoted to the rank of major general of Mississippi State Troops in 1863. Clark led a division at the Battle of Baton Rouge, where he was severely wounded and captured. He spent time as a prisoner of war before being released.

On November 16, 1863, Clark was inaugurated as governor of Mississippi under Confederate auspices. He served in this capacity until June 13, 1865, when he was forcibly removed from office by occupation forces of the United States Army and replaced by William L. Sharkey, a respected judge and staunch Unionist who had been in total opposition to secession. Clark was briefly imprisoned at Fort Pulaski near Savannah, Georgia.

Clarke was ex officio President of the University of Mississippi Board of Trustees during his tenure as Governor of Mississippi. Despite losing the governorship, he remained on the Board for almost ten years after his term ended. In 1871, he purchased Routhland, an Antebellum mansion in Natchez, Mississippi.[3]

He died in Bolivar County, Mississippi, on December 18, 1877, and was buried at the family graveyard in that county.

• List of American Civil War generals (Confederate)
• List of Governors of Mississippi

• Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 978-0-8047-3641-1.
• Sifakis, Stewart. Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File, 1988. ISBN 978-0-8160-1055-4.
• Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. ISBN 978-0-8071-0823-9.
• Robert Sobel; John Raimo (1978). Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789-1978, Vol. 2. Westport, CN: Meckler Books. ISBN 9780930466022. Retrieved January 14, 2021.

• Charles Clark at Find a Grave
• Doro Plantation Archaeological Artifacts and Reports, Delta State University