Clark Martin - Veterans Legacy Project

Their Story

Cavalry Trooper

Clark Martin was born in Tallapoosa City, Tallapoosa County, Alabama in 1847, to Barton Martin and Sarah A. Martin. Barton was 31 years older than Sarah and was a farmer. Clark was three years old at the time of the 1850 census and was an only child.^[1] In the next 10 years, the Martins would have six more children.^[2] He was 16 years old when he enlisted in Company E, 6^th Alabama Cavalry Regiment,^[3] at Pine Level, Alabama, May 1, 1863.^[4]

The 6th Alabama Cavalry Regiment was organized near Pine Level early in 1863. This regiment was part of a brigade commanded by Brigadier-General James Holt Clanton. The 6^th Alabama Cavalry was first posted to the south Alabama town of Pollard. Clanton and his brigade were ordered to north Alabama in February 1864, but the 6th Cavalry had already moved to Meridian, Mississippi. They were ordered to rejoin Clanton in Gadsden. The 6th was subsequently involved in several skirmishes with elements of the Federal XV and XIV Corps near Decatur, Danville and the Paint Rock River with small losses.

In the savage fighting of the Atlanta-Dalton campaign in May–June 1864 the regiment lost quite a number of men during the several weeks they were attached as part of Ferguson’s and Armstrong’s Brigades. On May 29, 1864, the 6^th was engaged in a savage battle near Moulton, Alabama.^[5] This is where Pvt. Martin was captured.^[6] He was taken to Atlanta where he was transported by train to Rock Island Prison Barracks in Illinois. Conditions at Rock Island Prison Barracks were not the best. Because of the Andersonville Georgia Prison’s treatment of Union prisoners, prisoners at Rock Island were put on half rations. The climate was colder than the south and there was a lot of sickness in the Rock Island Barracks.

Many of the prisoners did what Pvt. Martin did. On October 13, 1864, he took the Oath of Allegiance to the United States and enlisted in the Union Army for Frontier Service.^[7] He was moved outside the prison and given warmer clothing and full rations as he waited to be sent out west. It was too late for him. Pvt. Clark Martin died on November 14, 1864,^[8] of disease after being hospitalized.^[9]

Before Pvt. Martin died, he was in the “Unassigned U.S. Volunteer Infantry”. This was the unit for Confederate soldiers who were captured and took the oath of allegiance and joined the Union Army to go out west. They were called “Galvanized Yankees.”

Incidentally, in 1873, Clark’s father, Barton Martin, filed a claim against the government for property taken from his farm in March 1865 for use by Union troops. Those items were 165 bushels of corn, 200 pounds of bacon, and 1800 pounds of fodder (feed for cattle, horses, and sheep). His claim was for $233.^[10] In December 1876, Barton Martin was awarded $148.^[11]