Samuel Churchill Clark, the grandson of famed explorer William Clark and the son of noted designer-architect Meriwether Lewis Clark, was born in St. Louis in 1842. He entered West Point in 1859, but left the academy when the Civil War began and enlisted as a private in the Missouri State Guard. He fought as an artilleryman at the Siege of Lexington in September 1861, and became the commander of a State Guard artillery battery. On March 8, 1862, at the Battle of Pea Ridge, the nineteen-year-old Clark was decapitated by a Union artillery round. Churchill Clark was mourned by the Missourians in the Confederate ranks, including General Sterling Price. When he learned of Clark’s death, Price exclaimed, “My God, is my boy dead?”

Ambrotype by Unknown Photographer

Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 30090