Col. Clark R. Barteau, 2nd Tennessee Cavalry, Forrest’s Cavalry
By Ken R Knopp
Dependable, resourceful, brave, modest and a born leader these are just a few adjectives that come to mind when one digs into the record of Col. Clark Russell Barteau. A northerner until age twenty yet he fought for the South. Like his much admired commander, Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, Barteau was vaulted from the rank of private to Lt. Colonel in a single day! Though he never went higher than Colonel he commanded a brigade in Forrest's Cavalry to such a frequent extent that he was often referred to as “General Barteau”. A very quiet, humble man, he was not one to seek favor or promotion but satisfied to simply do his duty, which may, in part, explain his relative obscurity. Yet, his abilities, coolness under fire and impetuosity seemed always to find him in the thick of the fight. It is said, Col. Clark Barteau’s many contributions to the success of Forrest’s Cavalry in 1864 can be enumerated wherever his name is so frequently found in the official reports and various histories of its renowned operations.
Born (April 7, 1835) and raised on a farm in Cuyahoga, Ohio (near Cleveland), Barteau’s mother Lavinia, died in 1846 and then his father Russell W in 1858, leaving four children- two sons and two daughters. As the eldest, young Clark remained on his father’s farm until he was about sixteen years, then he entered Wesleyan University of Delaware, Ohio, where he studied four years. At the age of 20 (1855), curiosity sent him to visit Tennessee with some Kentucky friends to learn for himself something of Southern Society “as it really existed” and slavery, being then a topic of national news and raging debate. He stayed. In 1856, Barteau become principal of the Male Academy in Hartsville, Tenn. Then in 1858 he began editing and publishing the Hartsville Plain Dealer, an ultra Democratic, States Rights newspaper. Marrying a Southerner (Mary Crosby) on January 20th of 1859 he established a home in Smith County, Tenn., and began studying law. By then, it is said, Barteau had “formed his conclusions and did not hesitate to express them.” … and thus,…. “ He threw himself heart and soul on the side of the South”. Enlisting as a private in Co. D., 7th Battalion Tennessee Cavalry (Oct. 17, 1861) he quickly became a favorite and was so recognized by all as a natural leader that on June 12th, 1862 he was jumped (by election) from Private to Lt. Colonel in command of the 2nd Regiment Tennessee Cavalry (later full Colonel in 1863). Moreover, he was remarkably good at it.
First as a simple private and then at the head of the 2nd Tennessee (a.k.a. the 22nd Tennessee Cavalry) Barteau served in innumerable cavalry operations and engagements in north Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama under Gen. Daniel Ruggles, Gen. Samuel Gholson and Gen. Samuel Ferguson. When the 2nd Tenn. joined Forrest’s Cavalry in early 1864 Barteau quickly evolved into one of Bedford Forrest's most reliable leaders and fearless fighters often commanding Gen. Tyree Bell’s brigade in that officer’s absence. Forrest and Tyree Bell learned they could always count on Barteau to move aggressively and hit hard when needed especially in the timely flank attacks that were the Forrest forte. And, there were many opportunities. At Ft. Pillow Barteau expertly maneuvered his troops to take advantage of critical terrain on the Confederate right flank giving Forrest a distinct advantage for the eventual assault of the Federal breastworks. At Okolona, Miss., he was wounded, shot in the belt buckle and knocked from his horse leading what many believe was one of Forrest’s grandest and most desperate mounted cavalry charges of the war. Perhaps most noteworthy was his flank attack at the Tishomingo Bridge during the Battle of Brice’s Crossroads which was instrumental in securing Forrest’s greatest victory. The Second Tennessee became known as hard fighters and Barteau was known to lead from the front, never sending his men where he himself would not go. It is clear from the record that throughout the war Barteau had the confidence of both his men and superiors alike.
A complete list of engagements in which Col. Clark R. Barteau was under fire cannot be ascertained, however, the battles in which he participated almost reads like a list of the West’s major battlefields and cavalry fights including Ft. Donelson, Shiloh, Iuka, Corinth, Britton’s Lane, Okolona, Paduka, Ky., Ft. Pillow, Brice’s Crossroads, Harrisburg, Johnsonville, Spring Hill, Franklin and Nashville (Murfreesboro).
Few Southerners could say they risked or lost more than did Col. Barteau. He was wounded no less than five times including at Okolona, Harrisburg, Spring Hill and Franklin. At Murfressboro, Dec. 6, 1864 near the end of Hood's disastrous Tennessee campaign, he was so seriously wounded by a bullet shattering his left shinbone that he was disabled for the rest of the war and his life. During the war he sacrificed everything including his health, his business and his families both North and South. Estranged from his Ohio brethren on opposite sides by pre-war politics and then blood conflict, Col. Barteau fought on some of the very same battlefields as did his only brother, Harry Barteau; though there is no record of them ever meeting. After the war they corresponded and resumed cordial brotherly relations. Following the fall of Ft. Donelson in February 1862 then private Barteau rode home to spend just one pitiable hour with his dear wife Mary and their infant child Martha Lavinia Barteau (later Westbrooks). The army was retreating through Tennessee; he could remain no longer. So, in a scene reminiscent of a tragic romance novel, with one last poignant kiss and a quick farewell they parted. While Mrs. Barteau lived long enough to learn of his promotion to Colonel, Barteau would never see his beloved wife again. She would succumb to illness on Oct. 17, 1862. Clark Barteau married a second time on May 12, 1864 to Miss Zeuritha Zura Eckford of Macon, Miss. A young lady who herself had given five brothers to the Southern cause and was at least once herself in the smoke of battle (at Harrisburg), she was known for her missions of mercy and work in the north Mississippi hospitals. Paroled in Meridian MS. on May 16, 1865 (officially perhaps, July 26, 1865), Barteau made his way home exhausted, crippled and penniless to his young wife, daughter and her family in Aberdeen, Mississippi.
After the surrender, Col. Barteau picked up and rebuilt the pieces of his shattered life in the struggling post war Southern economy. A second child, Russie Bettie Barteau (later Schutz) was soon born then a third daughter in 1867, Hattie Eckford Barteau (later Caldwell). Clark Barteau resumed his law studies in Aberdeen, was admitted to the bar in 1868, moved to Bartlett, Tenn. (1870) and practiced law in Memphis from 1885 until his death (at age 64) on Feb 12, 1900.
Post war descriptions characterize Barteau as an eloquent speaker though habitually quiet and reposing. He shunned public life except in the discharge of his duties of the law. Still principally a Democrat of the post war variety, he accepted “in good faith the issues settled by the war and looked only to the buildup of the country”. To the end of his life, he remained a faithful friend of Southern values, a stalwart protector of his regiment’s reputation and the men with which he served.
POST SCRIPT: One of the many reasons for Forrest’s record of success was clearly his subordinate officers; intelligent, energetic, resourceful, indomitable, almost recklessly brave men. Men like Clark Barteau who, in the final year of the war fought against increasingly desperate odds with their own frantic determination, rashness and ferocity. What little record survives about this man presents a portrait of a strong willed, very responsible and capable man who perhaps might have advanced further in rank had he been a native. It would be interesting to know more about him, to understand his unshakable character, his obviously magnetic personality, how he reconciled his early decisions to go with the South and the resulting fate he faced as it all came to a humiliating, crushing defeat and destructive end- then more about how he conducted himself after the war. Like many other relatively obscure Southern warriors there is so much we don’t know. It is this type of ordinary men revealed by war’s fiery trials that I find so fascinating.
Sometime after the war (but before 1887) Barteau wrote his memoirs apparently from a diary of sorts he kept during the war. Excerpts of which were extensively used in publishing Hancock’s “History of the 2nd Tennessee Cavalry” and to some extent, in Wyeth’s “That Devil Forrest, The Life of Nathan Bedford Forrest”. Sadly, these personal papers appear to be lost to history- yet another reason this man has never been given his just due and why I, in his short biography, determined to bring him back for us to remember.
The photograph is from an old Ambrotype probably taken in the mid to late summer of 1864, when he was recovering from a wound in the wrist received at Harrisburg and a severe illness. The mark of the bullet can still be seen in his sleeve. He is buried in Elmwood Cemetery, Memphis Shelby County, Tennessee, Plot: Fowler Section, Confederate Lot.
SOURCES: Hancock’s Diary, Or, A History of the 2nd Tennessee Cavalry, by R. R. Hancock, (1887); That Devil Forrest, The Life of Nathan Bedford Forrest by John Allen Wyeth (1899); Brigadier General Tyree H. Bell, CSA, Forrest’s Fighting General, By Nathaniel Cheairs Hughes, Jr. (2004). The Old Guard in Gray, by J Harvey Mathis, (1897); Find A Grave Memorial# 5991981.