Thomas J. Clark was a native of Jefferson County, Georgia. Born about 1840, he married Martha Ann Law on January 21, 1858. The couple lived in Hamilton County, Florida, and had a daughter named Eliza Irvin Clark, who was born October 10, 1861.
Clark enlisted in the Confederate Army on April 25, 1862 at Camp Leon, near Tallahassee; he enrolled in Company H, Fifth Florida Infantry Regiment, which was commanded by Captain John Frink. The Fifth Florida remained in its native state until the summer of 1862, when it was ordered to reinforce the Confederate forces in Virginia. The regiment saw its first combat at the Battle of Second Bull Run (Manassas) in August, and was also engaged in the bloody Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg, Maryland), on September 17, 1862. In the latter action, Thomas Clark was severely wounded in the leg and chest. Evacuated to a military hospital in nearby Shepherdstown, Virginia, Clark was captured and paroled by Union forces on September 25, 1862. He remained in the Shepherdstown hospital after his parole, where he died in mid-November.
From the description of Papers, 1862-1864. (Florida State Archive). WorldCat record id: 32413308
