Civil War soldier is gone but not forgotten

By Staff
Submitted, Hartselle Enquirer
Col. Calvin J. Clack, another hero of Pulaski, Tenn. is gone but not forgotten. He was the last field officer to get killed at the Battle of Jonesboro, Aug. 31, 1864, and was buried on the battlefield. His remains were recovered 19 years later and buried in historic Maplewood Cemetery, Pulaski, Tenn. Unfortunately, he never got a tombstone. Rita Birdsong arranged for a tombstone to be set for him and a grave marking ceremony, along with the Pulaski Masonic Lodge No. 101. This ceremony will be sponsored by the Giles County No. 257 UDC of Pulaski, Tenn., and Joe Wheeler Chapter No, 291 Decatur. They will be assisted by the John C. Brown Camp #112 of Pulaski. This event will take place Nov. 4 at 2:30 p.m. in Maplewood Cemetery. The public is invited to attend.
Col. Clack was a young prominent lawyer in the firm of his uncle, Thomas McKissack Jones, who was a judge and a member of the Confederate Congress. The law office was located in what is now the WKSR building, in Pulaski. Col. Clack was the son of Spencer D. and Lucy Jones Clack, and born around 1829, in Pulaski. He was educated in the local schools and went to Monroe County, Miss. continuing his study of law and returned around 1858 to Pulaski. He joined his uncle as a junior partner in the law firm of Jones and Clack. He never married and was a member of the Presbyterian Church. His brother Spencer Dixt Clack also served in the Third Tennessee.
In 1861, Abraham Lincoln issued his call for 75, 000 men to invade the South, and 7,000 from Tennessee. Col. Clack and Gen. John C. Brown were riding a train coming back to Pulaski. Once they read the proclamation, their minds were made up instantly. A mass meeting was called in Pulaski and almost every voter attended and they voted to take up arms against the invaders from the North. Thus the Third Tennessee Infantry was formed. Under the leadership of Captain John C. Brown's Company, nine other companies were formed by men mainly from Giles, Maury and Marshall Counties. Clack was elected as 1st Lt. of the company. When Captain John C. Brown was made Colonel, Clack succeeded him as Captain of the Third Tennessee.
Col. Clack was a well respected and honorable soldier, the ever gallant one that was the same person, whether around the campfire or leading his company on toward victory. Many times he asked Samuel C. Mitchell to sing "Nearer My God to Thee," as his men gathered round the camp fire. Whatever battle, and there were many, he was at his post and kept the men's moral high by giving them pep talks. It was stated he was modest as a woman, yet brave as a lion. The men loved and respected him.
After being in Northern prisons, in the fall of 1862, the Third Tennessee was reorganized. Col. John C. Brown was promoted as General. Col. Harvey Walker, from Pulaski, replaced Brown as Colonel. Calvin Clack replaced Brown as Lt. Colonel.
In the desperate fight between Chattanooga and Atlanta, June 22, 1864, Col. Harvey Walker's head was blown off at Kennesaw Mountain, Ga., and Calvin J. Clack assumed command and succeeded him as Colonel. Col. Clack did not live to see his appointment confirmed by the Confederate authorities, but soldiers referred to him as Colonel anyway. He was killed by a ball over his left eye, in one of the bloodiest of battles at Jonesboro, Ga. His comrades were devastated by his death, but were determined to follow the tattered and blood-stained flag of the Third Tennessee to victory, and sometimes to death. The soldiers remembered Col. Clack writing on a page of the Bible in Ecclesiastes, the third Chapter: "To everything there is a season…A time to be born and a time to die…"
In the latter part of April 1883, a meeting was held in the town of Elkton, Tenn., of the Third Tennessee, Co. K. A resolution was passed to assist any other company to remove the remains of Col. Clack from Georgia. After nineteen years, it was time for Col. Clack's remains to be brought home, if possible. His survivors and his old comrades worshiped his memory with a devotion that time only strengthens.
By October 1883, a meeting was held by the ex-Confederate soldiers in Pulaski, at the courthouse. S. C. Mitchell and John W. Dyer were appointed to go to Georgia and search for the grave of Col. Clack. Gov. Brown furnished a map he had made of the battlefield which would lead them exactly to the grave. When they reached the grave, Col. Clack wasn't there. After much trouble and difficulty, they found his remains had been moved, with many other Confederate soldiers. The citizens of the town of Jonesboro had buried them in a soldier's cemetery. The headboards were wooden boards, but did have the names on them. Col. Clack's wooden tombstone had fallen to the side of his grave. Mitchell and Dyer were elated as they exhumed his remains. Some of the bones had perished but they found his skull with the fracture over the left eye, made by the ball that killed him. They also recognized his peculiar English boots, one sleeve of his coat and a brass spur, well preserved. Carefully they packed the remains of the fearless hero, who counted his life as nothing compared to his country's honor, and returned to Pulaski. His remains were taken to the undertaker for preparation for re-interment at Maplewood Cemetery.
The people of Pulaski were thrilled when it was announced Col. Calvin Clack's remains had been brought home to rest. A meeting was called at the courthouse and the soldiers were appointed to prepare a suitable program for the re-interment of their fallen hero.
Saturday, Nov. 10, 1883 was the date agreed upon for the funeral and re-interment. The women of Pulaski decorated Antoinette Hall with wreathes and
draped the stage in black. Around the hall on the facing of the gallery were affixed the names of the battles in which the regiment fought, beginning at Donelson and ending at Bentonville.
The remains were carried from the undertaker to Antoinette Hall. The tattered stained flag of the Third Tennessee lay on Col. Clack's casket. Hundreds of ex-Confederates from Giles and surrounding communities came to honor the bones of him whom they loved so well in life. The surviving soldiers of the 3rd Tennessee acted as body guards and some were pallbearers. Tribute after tributes was read in his honor by: Gov. John C. Brown, Samuel C. Mitchell, Hon. John C. Lester, John H. Woldridge, Hon. James McCallum, on behalf of the Masons, and others. The choir sang "Nearer My God to Thee," and his comrade Chaplain Deavenport gave a short address. He testified to the grandeur and unyielding honor of Col Calvin J. Clack.
The procession reached from First Street, Antoinette Hall, almost to the cemetery gates; the soldiers marching four abreast, and scores of soldiers and citizens following behind. Thus passed one of the most solemn eventful day in Pulaski's history.
The Pulaski Citizen had numerous articles about Col Calvin Clack and the events leading up to his funeral. They also had an article that came out in the March 22, 1923 Citizen, suggesting the local Chapter UDC or some other patriotic organization
take necessary steps to raise funds and erect a monument to the memory of Col. Clack. Again it was a difficult time during the depression and nothing was accomplished.