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  • Texas | Columns | Lone Star Diary

    John Clayton:
    Rebel with a Cause

    by Murray Montgomery
    Murray Montgomery

    Dialogue from an old movie (I don’t recall which one) came to mind when I read the obituary of John H. Clayton.

    The film depicted an intense battle and many men were being killed. One of the actors said, “Where do we find men such as these? Men who will charge into combat and die for a cause, without any regard for their own life.”

    Apparently, Clayton was that type of man. A resident of Leesville, Texas, John Clayton fought for the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. He was wounded twice and became a prisoner of war during that conflict — a man so resolute in his belief of the Southern cause that he wouldn’t accept a pension because it was paid with “federal money.”

    The following tribute to John H. Clayton appeared in The Gonzales Inquirer in April of 1937 – it has not been edited and appears as it did when first published.


    The Gonzales Inquirer • April 15, 1937
    [Headline: Final Tribute Paid Memory of Old Soldier]


    John H. Clayton, 95, last of old Confederate veterans of Gonzales County was given fitting services at
    Leesville on Sunday, April 4. He died in the Texas Confederate Home at Austin on April 3.

    Refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the Union at the end of the war he never received his discharge from the army, and remained true to the Confederate Cause until his death.

    He was a prisoner of war at Fortress Monroe when the North-South fight came to a close. The aged veteran related many times before his death the story of how he refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Union. He said that he was released along with other prisoners to rejoin Lee’s army and take the oath enmassee. Once out of prison he escaped to New York and took a boat bound for Texas.

    John H. Clayton was born in Portsmouth, Va., March 6, 1842. He came to
    Texas prior to the Civil War and was said to have been one of the signers of the secession. When the war began he returned to his native state of Virginia and joined the Confederate army, enlisting in Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. He was wounded twice while seeing active service.

    After reaching the coast of Texas at “Old Powder Horn,” Mr. Clayton went to Live Oak County where he settled near Oakville. He moved to the Leesville community in 1876 and made his home there until the last few years which he spent in the Confederate home at Austin.

    He went up the trail with cattle to Kansas from both Live Oak and Gonzales counties.

    While he would never accept a Confederate pension, because he believed it was paid with “federal money," he had a desire during his declining days to go to the Confederate home where he could be in company with those old veterans who were companions in the war.

    He died in the home at
    Austin on April 3 and his remains were brought back to Leesville for burial in the cemetery near his old home. Services were conducted in the Leesville Methodist church by Rev. C. Gamenthaler of Liberty Hill, a former pastor, who was assisted by Rev. G.C. Childress, present pastor.

    The burial service was conducted by the Leesville Masonic Lodge of which he had been a member for many years.

    Active pallbearers were O.I. Littlefield, Z.T. Littlefield, G.N. Lincecum, Ves Downs, C.A. Haynes and Ben Clark. Honorary pallbearers included: W.M. Fly, D.U. Ramsay, Frank Hampton, Jake Nesloney, August Kaleis and Sam Jones.

    His only surviving relative is Clayton Bouldin, a grandson living in Gonzales.

    It is believed that Mr. Clayton was the last surviving Confederate veteran of Gonzales County, and was probably the oldest man of the county.


    © Murray Montgomery
    December 10 , 2011 column
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