★ Fisk, Clinton Bowen

Clinton Bowen Fisk​

Born: December 8, 1828

Birthplace: York, New York

Father: Benjamin Bigford Fisk 1794 – 1832

(Buried: Riverside Cemetery, Clinton, Michigan)​

Mother: Lydia Aldrich 1796 – 1879

(Buried: Riverside Cemetery, Clinton, Michigan)​

Wife: Janette Adelaide Crippen 1832 – 1912

(Buried: Oak Grove Cemetery, Coldwater, Michigan)​

Children:

Charles Atwood Fisk 1851 – 1913​

(Buried: Oak Grove Cemetery, Coldwater, Michigan)​

​

Jennie Lewis Fisk 1866 – 1868​

(Buried: Oak Grove Cemetery, Coldwater, Michigan)​

​

Clinton Bowen Fisk Jr. 1871 – 1909​

(Buried: Oak Grove Cemetery, Coldwater, Michigan)​

Education:

Attended Albion Seminary​

​

Attended Michigan Central College​

Occupation before War:

Merchant, Miller and Banker in Coldwater Michigan​

​

1857: Suffered financially due to the panic of 1857​

​

Insurance Salesman in Saint Louis Missouri​

Civil War Career:

1862: Colonel of 33rd​ Missouri Infantry Volunteers Regiment​

​

1862 – 1865: Brigadier General of Union Army Volunteers​

​

Served most of his civil war days in Missouri and Arkansas​

​

Commander of District of Southeast Missouri and Arkansas​

​

Commander of Department of North Missouri​

​

Opposed attacks and raids from Price, Marmaduke and Shelby​

Occupation after War:

Assistant Freedmen's Bureau Commissioner Kentucky & Tennessee​

​

Worked to set up first free schools in the South for African Americans and European Americans​

​

Made Abandoned barracks in Nashville a school called Fisk School​

​

Successful Banker in New York​

​

Member of the United States Board of Indian Commissioners​

​

Leader of the temperance movement and Prohibition Political Party​

​

1888: Unsuccessful Prohibition Party Presidential Candidate​

​

1888: Received one of the highest results of the Prohibition Party​

Died: July 9, 1890

Place of Death: New York City New York

Age at time of Death: 61 years old

Burial Place: Oak Grove Cemetery Coldwater Michigan

 

[Pollaco]

Andrew Johnson supported his work in the Freeman's Bureau by saying " Fisk ain't a fool, he won't hang everybody."

 

[Pollaco]

The book that I'm reading states that Fisk ran for Governor of New Jersey in 1886. Apparently he lost this race as he ran for President in 1888, both on the Prohibition ticket.

 

[gentlemanrob]

Happy Birthday Brig. General Clinton B. Fisk! Salutes remembering General Fisk on his birthday.

 

[Pollaco]

He was on that Indian Commission for the last 16 years of his life.

 

[LetUsHavePeace]

Grant first met Fisk in St. Louis in 1859, and they became colleagues and comrades when the "Merchants Regiment" (as the 33rd was known) played its part at Yazoo City and Vicksburg. Grant appointed Fisk Chairman of the Indian Commission precisely because he had the two essential qualities for the job. Fisk understood finance and financial shenanigans, and he was morally and fiscally incorruptible.

https://www.fisk.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/cooke-geoffreycollectiononclintonb.fiskfamily1832-1941.pdf

 

[Pollaco]

In addition to establishing a school in the abandonded barracks in Nashville Fisk endowed the school with $30,000.

 

[Pollaco]

One source states that Fisk was on Gen. Custer's staff but I feel it's a misprint. Fisk was in the Army of the Tennessee while Custer was in the Army of the Potomac

 

[mofederal]

Fisk finances suffered heavily in the Panic of collapse of 1857, and in 1859, he moved to St. Louis and became involved in the insurance business. Previously he had been a merchant miller and a banker. The Panic arose after the sinking of the SS Central America, which hit the American economy hard.

 

[mofederal]

Fisk had particular ideas on how to deal with guerrillas in North (Northeast) Missouri, in this case Captain Clifton Holtzclaw. In a letter to a Major King, he wrote:

"I congratulate you on the good beginning of the bushwhacking campaign. Strike with vigor and determination. Take no prisoners. We have enough of that sort on hand now. Pursue and kill. I have two of Holtzclaw's men, just captured. They state that he camps, when in Howard County, in the rear of old man Hackley's farm, not far from Fayette. Make a dash in there at night and get him if possible. Let a detachment secretly watch his mother's residence. He is home almost daily, and his sisters are great comforters of the bushwhackers. Old man Hackley has a son in the brush. I shall soon send out of the district the bushwhacking families. Go ahead and give a good report."1

Fisk also used the Provost Marshalls and direct military action against families who supported the guerrillas. Going so far as to equate single and married women without their husbands to be labelled disorderly women (basically prostitutes), and hence running a disorderly house, therefore subject to the military justice system. Fisk did not fully understand his enemy, selling them short, and creating more enemies of the Union in Missouri. The age of the female headed household came to the fore in this period. In this way Fisk created his own problems as did other Union District commanders, so while they appeared to be handling the guerrilla problem in Missouri, they were in fact problems, to which they did not have any clear answers, hence Fisk's response to the guerrilla war.

1. War of the Rebellion 1 Series Vol. 41 Pt. 1 p. 760