Video
Clark Lee and His "Service" to the Confederacy
Transcript
Welcome to the program. My name is Chris Young, and I am one of the park rangers at Chickamauga
and Chattanooga National Military Park. Today, we are going to tackle an uncomfortable and
divisive topic concerning African Americans who took up arms to serve as soldiers, fighting
for the Confederacy, during the Civil War. Unfortunately, we only have a short
time together, so we are going to focus on a local resident who fits this category.
A little over a year ago, while filming a program about William Lewis, I visited his
grave here, in Forest Hills Cemetery, at the base of Lookout Mountain, outside the
small community of St. Elmo. A pointed headstone caught my eye, which was intriguing, as this
type of headstone denotes Confederate soldiers' burials, yet it was in the cemetery's historic
African American section. The name carved on the stone is that of Clark Lee. A rank,
a unit and company designation, and a listing of the battles, which includes Chickamauga and
Lookout Mountain is also etched on his stone. I heard of Clark Lee many years ago, but this encounter
with Lee sparked a renewed interest in his story and about how he came to receive a Confederate
headstone. So, I began exploring his "service" to the Confederacy, and in what capacity he
served the 1st Confederate (Georgia) Infantry.
During my research, I found that Lee's story was not an obscure one in the area.
Newspaper articles, wayside markers, and even a locally published book can be found. However, the
sources used to validate Lee's service to the Confederacy have been misused and misinterpreted.
Today, I'll attempt to walk us through the process of the research that solidified Clark
Lee as an enslaved man, and that his service was to the one who brought him into the army,
not to the Confederate government and cause for which it fought.
Clark Lee's name is not listed among the white soldiers who served under arms as members
of the 1st Confederate Infantry. That's because he was enslaved.
His enslaver's name was James M. Lee, who, in 1860, lived in Ringgold, Georgia, with
his wife and young son. According to the 1860 Slave Schedule, James Lee enslaved 12 men, women,
and children, one of whom was Clark Lee.
We are now standing in Chickamauga Battlefield, at the regimental marker for the
2nd Battalion, of the 1st Confederate (Georgia) Infantry.
As the thirst for war grew, it finally boiled over, and Georgia seceded on January 29, 1861.
The first paragraph of Georgia's Declaration of the Causes of Secession painted a clear
picture as to why the state decided to sever its ties with the United States. The declaration
stated, "The people of Georgia having dissolved their political connection with the Government
of the United States of America, present to their confederates and to the world the causes
which have led to the separation. For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious
causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding confederate States, with reference to the subject
of African slavery. They have endeavored to weaken our security, to disturb our domestic
peace and tranquility, and persistently refused to comply with their express constitutional
obligations to us in reference to that property, and by the use of their power in the Federal
Government have striven to deprive us of an equal enjoyment of the common Territories
of the Republic."
On July 8, 1861, James Clark Gordon enlisted in Company H, of the 26th Tennessee Infantry for
12 a month period, and was elected its captain. He was subsequently captured at Fort Donelson
on February 16, 1862, and was eventually exchanged. He then became the captain of Company I, 1st
Confederate (Georgia) Infantry Regiment. Gordon was appointed the unit's major on November 25, 1862.
By August 1863, he found himself "on duty with the 2nd Battalion, 1st Confederate
Regiment at Chattanooga, Tenn." It was during this time that he received Clark Lee as his personal
body servant, from his brother-in-law, James M. Lee. So, how do we know all this? Clark
Gordon's Compiled Service Record is housed in the National Archives
and Records Administration. In 1921, Clark Lee applied for a pension from the State of
Tennessee, and in it, he indicated his owner to be Jim Lee, which is James M. Lee.
But let s talk more about the ONLY information Clark Lee left behind, a 1921 Tennessee State
Pension application.
Lee's pension is the foundation upon which his Confederate service has recently been
propagated. It is the only true primary source used in printed material to support his service.
So, let's start by diving into his Confederate Tennessee pension process.
On April 9, 1921, the Tennessee State Assembly passed Senate Bill No. 1342, which had two
sections. Here is the language of the bill: "An ACT to be entitled an Act to provide pensions
for those colored men who served as servants and cooks in the Confederate Army in the war
between the States 1861 - 1865. Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly
of the State of Tennessee, That the colored men who acted as servants or cooks in the
Confederate Army in the War Between the States, are hereby permitted to make application to
the Pension Board for a pension and when they make proper proof of their service, acceptable
to said Board, that their names be placed upon the Pension List and that they be paid
out of the pension fund, the sum of Ten ($10.00) Dollars per month or Thirty Dollars per quarter.
Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, That the Act take effect from and after its passage, the
public welfare requiring it.
W. W. Bond, the Speaker of the Senate, Andrew L. Todd, the Speaker of the House of Representatives,
and A. A. Taylor, the Governor, signed the bill.
It wasn't long before the newspapers and periodicals picked up Tennessee's pension news.
In the Saturday, June 18, 1921, "Broad Ax," published in Chicago, Illinois, a reprinted
article from Nashville, Tennessee, read, "Every Negro who served in any way his master to
receive a pension, according to the act of the Tennessee Legislature .The real text
of the bill provides A Bill to Pension Negro Cooks and Servants. It is estimated that there
will be thousands of dollars to give to disable members of the race who saw service with the
Gray and who were loyal to their masters throughout their career. The introducing and passing
of this bill is regarded in this city as the first forward movement throughout the South to
give recognition to those loyal members of the Race who stood by their slave owners."
Printed in Nashville, Tennessee, in August 1921, Confederate Veteran magazine, ran an
article entitled "Pensions for Faithful Negros," in which it said, "A new feature in the pension
appropriation of Tennessee makes an allowance for pensions to the faithful negros who were
in the war with their masters and served them until the end." The article continued by saying,
"Doubtless other States of the South will make similar provision for their old negroes, whose
loyally, under the circumstances showed a fine sense of honor not apparent to later generations
of the race."
A month after the article in the Confederate Veteran, and 5 months after the pension bill's
passage, Clark Lee filed his Colored Man's Application for Pension, which was number
107 in the State of Tennessee, on September 16, 1921.
On the form, there was a notice to applicants, which stated:
"The Negroes pension law passed by the Tennessee Legislature, provide that the Negroes pensioned
by the Act must have been actual bona fide residents of this State three years if they
served with a Tennessee command, and ten years if they served with a command from any other
State. They must have remained with the army until the close of the war, unless legally
relieved from service. They must be indigent. Unless you come clearly under this law, it
is useless to file an application.
The pension form's wording alone makes it undeniable of the status in which Lee served
the Confederacy. He swore the following: "I, Clark Lee, a native of the State of Georgia
and now a citizen of Tennessee, resident at 1812 Rear Whiteside, in the County of Hamilton
in said State of Tennessee, and who was a servant from the State of Georgia in the war
between the United States and the Confederate States, do hereby apply for aid under the
Act of the General Assembly of Tennessee, of 1921. And I do solemnly swear that I was
with Col. Gordon, Col. Smith of Macon, GA. in the service of the Confederate States,
and that by reason of indigence I am now entitled to receive the benefit of this Act. I further
swear that I do not hold any National, State or county office, nor do I receive aid or
pension from any other State, or from the United States. I do further solemnly swear
that the answers given to the following questions are true."
Here is a sampling of the most pertinent questions related to this program that are found in Clark Lee's pension application:
"In What County, State and year were you born? Walker County, Ga. State of Georgia. Near
Ringgold. Do not know how old I am. When did you go with the army? Give the names
of the regimental and company officers under which your master served.
Left home about three weeks before the battle of Chick. Col. Gordon 1st Con. Georgia Regiment.
under Gen. Bragg. Give the name of your owner.
Jim Lee. When and where did you leave the army?
Left the army about two days before the surrender near Goldberg, North Carolina."
In addition to his own sworn statement, he had to produce witnesses to his service. According
to an article written by Professor James G. Hollandsworth, Jr., the reason for this centered
around LOYALTY. "It was a key component to a successful application, and being present
at the surrender of his master's unit at the end of the war was evidence that the Black
applicant had not deserted. This incentive alone would encourage applicants to exaggerate
the length of time they had served. Confederate pension boards were aware of these problems,
and all five states [at the time] required that at least two witnesses, preferably former
Confederate soldiers, sign affidavits under oath stating that the information provided
by the applicant was accurate."
Therefore, Clark Lee needed two witnesses.
He found them in John B. Henderson and William H. Hill, both veterans of Co. D, 1st Confederate
(Georgia) Infantry Regiment. However, there was a catch. Both men stated, under oath,
that "we know the applicant was with Col Gordon to the end of our service. We being captured
at Nashville. Dec. 1864." John B. Henderson was captured at Murfreesboro,
Tennessee, on December 5, 1864. William H. Hill was captured at Nashville,
Tennessee, on December 16, 1864.
The catch was that the pension board required that pensioners needed to serve until two
days before an official surrender. Henderson and Hill could not provide that needed information
without perjuring themselves.
According to Professor Adam Domby, "Like Confederate soldiers who accepted African American laborers
but rejected the prospect of black soldiers, the Southerners who designed the pension system
wanted it clear that ex-slave pensions were not equal to those of white veterans."
On Confederate flag stamped letterhead, the Tennessee Board of Pension Examiners sent
Clark Lee a letter, which stated:
"Dear Sir: The Board has considered your case and disallowed it. It must have proof, from
persons who know the facts, that you served with the Confederate army until two days before
the surrender. Your witnesses say that you served to the end of the war, in December
1864. If you send in proof, the Board will reconsider your case."
It took almost two years for the issue to be resolved and included correspondence with
the pension board from the headquarters of the 1st Division Forrest's Cavalry Corps in
Chattanooga, which was a camp of the United Confederate Veterans.
Chattanoogan James. F. Shipp wrote Georgia Congressman Gordon Lee on June 16, 1923:
"I am writing you in the interest of a dear old colored man, who states he was before
the Confederate War a member of your family, in other words, he was a slave and belonged
to your father. I have been interesting myself to get a state
pension for him based upon the fact, as he states that he was a body servant, during
the latter part of the war, to Col. Clark Gordon, your Uncle, and remained with him
loyal and true to the close of the war and came home with Col. Gordon after the surrender
of Gen. Johnson's [sic] Army in North Carolina. If he can establish this record he will be
entitled to a Tennessee State Pension under our present pension law allowing pension to
our faithful old slaves, who remained true to the close of the struggle to their 'white
folks.' I am proud of the fact that I am the author of this bill, making our faithful old
slaves, who took part in the field, during the war.
Now I understand that you are not expected to know these facts on your own knowledge,
but I am hoping that you know enough of the facts from reliable authority that would establish
this old man's eligibility under the provisions of the State Pension Law.
Write me such letter as you feel justified in doing in regard to this matter that I may
file it with Clark Lee's application for a Tenn. State Pension."
John N. Johnson, the Major General, Commanding the local United Confederate Veterans organization
wrote the Tennessee Pension Board of Examiner's secretary, John P. Hickman the following,
on July 13, 1923. "As I wrote you that Shipp and I have been
trying to get this old man a pension for some time. It seems by your letter that he lacked
proper evidence, and he has put himself to a great deal of trouble to locate some one
who was in the army and who knew him and his record. He found old man Crouch [sic] who is now
past a going, is almost blind and too feeble even to go to the table without assistance.
Crouch [sic] has made a statement which I sent you that Clark Lee was with the army up to the
close of the war and went home with his master after the surrender. Now if the statement
of Crouch [sic] has to be certified, you will please let me know by return mail (if possible) and
we will arrange to have a magistrate or a notary sent into the country to take his statement.
If however it can be avoided we would like to do so, but if it has to be done it must
be done at once as Crouch [sic] is very old and feeble, and is the only [one] we can lay hands
on at this time that was really with Lee at the surrender."
Was Crouch [sic] the only one they could lay hands on to vouch for Clark Lee and his service
to Clark Gordon up until two days before the surrender of Johnston's army at Bennett Place
in North Carolina?
On June 16, 1923, Reuben Couch singed a written statement, which read:
"This is to certify that Clark Lee colored was in the Confederate army with his master
Col. Clark Gordon of the First Confederate Georgia Regiment, Infantry, and that he was
with our Regiment up to the close of the war. I testify that I saw him in person two days
before the close of the war he was with his master Col. Clark Gordon at the time.
I was Teamster of this Regiment, and certify that Clark Lee went home with Col. Gordon
at the close of the war. I am drawing a pension from the state of Georgia and you can find
out anything you want to know about me from the Records of the Pension Bureau of the State of Ga."
One interesting contradiction to his statement in Clark Lee's pension is his whereabouts
at the war s close. Georgia Pension Question #7 asked, "Were you
present with your company and regiment when it surrendered?" Couch answered, "No."
Georgia Pension Question #8 asked, "If not present, state specifically and clearly where
you were, when you left your command, for what cause and by whose authority." Couch
answered, "At Point Lookout, Md. Was in Prison, was captured in the valley of Va."
This statement can be corroborated by looking at Couch's Compiled Military Service Record,
or CSMR. He did enlist in Company I, 60th Georgia, on May 6, 1862, at LaFayette, Georgia,
and was a teamster in the unit. He was also captured on October 19, 1864, in Strasburg,
Virginia, during the Battle of Cedar Creek. He wasn't released from Point Lookout until
June 20, 1865. Are these the same person? The 1st Confederate
Infantry fought in the Western Theater of the Civil War, while the 60th Georgia fought
in the war's Eastern Theater. How could Couch swear that he saw Clark Lee two
days before the close of the war, yet he was in a completely different theater of the war
and was imprisoned at Point Lookout, Maryland?
Well, yes, this is the same Reuben Couch. How do we know? Because the witness who signed
Reuben Couch's statement attesting to his seeing Clark Lee two days before the close
of the war, was Georgia Couch. In his own Georgia pension, Reuben Couch stated that
he had two single daughters Sallie age 32, and Georgia Couch, age 30 years.
So, why the fraud and perjury by Reuben Couch?
On June 28, 1923, John N. Johnson wrote John P. Hickman that he "drew up the certificate
and the old negro took to him [Couch], but was not able to employ an officer or notary
to go with him.
Johnson wrote Hickman again, stating that "if the statement of Crouch [sic] has
to be certified, that you please let me know by return mail (if possible) and we will arrange
to have a magistrate or a notary sent into the country to take his statement. If however
it can be avoided we would like to do so, but if it has to be done it must be done at
once as Crouch [sic] is very old and feeble, and is the only [one] we can lay hands on at this time
that was really with Lee at the surrender."
It appears there may have been a dearth of Confederate veterans to choose from at the
time, and Couch was the only one available in the area. The statement was typed up by
Johnson and Clark Lee took it to Couch for his signature.
One other interesting fact is that in 1860, James Clark Gordon, the officer to whom Lee
was a servant, lived a mere four houses away from Samuel Couch, whose 25 year old son,
Rueben, was a part of the household.
Is it a coincidence that the Confederate veteran who was willing to perjure himself was a neighbor
of the Gordon family, with whom Clark Lee served during the Civil War?
Was there a feeling of obligation in trying to see once-enslaved African Americans receive
pensions? Or was there a more deep-seated motive to the pension system?
Professor Adam Domby argues that "ex-slave pensions were purposefully designed as tools
for racial control. For example, South Carolina's slave pension act's purpose was to reward
the negroes who were faithful when the war was raging, and who remained faithful through
the years down to the present."
He also argues that "the pension system can be seen as a continuation of the older patronage
systems that evolved out of slavery. In some ways, the pensions system mirrored slavery,
when elderly enslaved people were at the mercy of white enslavers for the most basic needs.
After emancipation, those who stayed friendly with a former master might expect to receive
protection and resources when needed."
Can we see this in Clark Lee's case?
One quarter of the 280 applicants from African Americans in Tennessee were rejected. Clark
Lee would have been in this number had it not been for the assistance of white men pushing
his pension through, with the help of Rueben Couch, who wasn't even with Lee at the war's
end but was still languishing in a Union prison camp at Point Lookout, Maryland.
There is no doubt that Clark Lee went to war with his enslaver's brother-in-law, Colonel Clark
Gordon, of the 1st Confederate (Georgia) Infantry. There were even notarized witnesses who saw
him at the time of the Battle of Nashville, in December 1864. However, if Couch's testimony
had been deemed untrustworthy, Lee would never have received his pension, as he successfully did on July 10,1923.
Lee did not receive his pension based upon his service to the Confederacy in the capacity
as a soldier, fighting to keep himself and others "happily" enslaved by the Lee family.
He was taken to war by Colonel Gordon to serve the colonel's interests as a piece of human
property.
In the end, although he received his $10 per month from the state of Tennessee, Clark Lee had not received truly all that was due him.
Description
Clark Lee, an enslaved man near Ringgold, Georgia, was brought into the war by his enslaver's brother-in-law, just a few weeks before the Battle of Chickamauga. He was awarded a Tennessee State Pension in 1923, but was it for his service to the Confederacy or for the "loyalty and service" to the one who enslaved him?
Duration
26 minutes, 40 seconds
Credit
NPS
Date Created
08/13/2022
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