Vanburen Field Clark (abt. 1835 - abt. 1911)

Born about Nov 1835 in Lunenburg County, Virginia [uncertain]

Ancestors

Husband of Ann Elizabeth (Overton) Clark — married 20 Nov 1867 in Lunenburg County, Virginia

Descendants

Died about 3 Nov 1911 at about age 76 in Lunenburg County, Virginia [uncertain]

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Laura Lynne Hedgecock [send private message]

Biography

Native Virginian

Son of Field Clark and Sarah C Keeton.

Married wife Ann Elizabeth Overton on 1867-11-20 in Lunenburg Co, VA. Children include:

1. Jasper Robert b1868
2. James E. b1870
3. Mary Susan b1878 -- later Savoy

Served in the Confederate Army -- Private, Company G, 9th Virginia Calvary. Wounded. Captured, briefly.

Also known as "Mr. Van"

Military Service

American Civil War Soldiers Record -

• Name: V F Clark
• Distinguished Service: DISTINGUISHED SERVICE
• Side Served: Confederacy
• State Served: Virginia
• Service Record: Enlisted as a Private, 07 JUN 1861, Lunenburg Co, VA
• wounded 23 June 1864

Civil war record, 9th Virginia Calvary -

• Van Buren Field Clark enlisted June 07, 1861 in company G.
• Absent 6 July through December.
• Present until wounded by gunshot in upper maxillary on June 23, 1864.
• Retired to invalid corps on February 16, 1865.
• 9th Calvary was engaged in extensive action on June 23 and 24th at Nance’s Shop (Samaria church).

Regimental Statistics, from "9th Calvary in VA" -

• Most of the men who fought under the colors of the 9th Cavalry were either farmers or were young enough to not yet be established in an occupation. Of the 309 men for whom a prewar occupation is known, 164 were farmers - or 53% of them. Physicians and students were the next most frequent occupations, with 33 each. There were also: 12 lawyers, 12 merchants, 12 clerks, 11 mechanics, 10 teachers, 6 carpenters, 3 sailors, and 2 or less members of ten other occupations. Twenty-three year old Ben Oliver (later killed at Boonsboro) listed his occupation as "Gentleman".
• Only 11 men are shown by the service records as illiterate. It is interesting to note that 5 of those 11 men deserted.
• Disease caused 81 deaths in the 9th during the war, a figure about two-thirds of that for battle-caused mortality.
• Ages are available for about 40% of the men who served in the 9th Cavalry. The average age at enlistment was 25.85 years and the median age was 24. These figures are very similar for most other Virginia units. Three 15 year olds were the youngest of record; A.K. Pool, R.C. Beale and L.R. Boughton.
• From the records of Robert Krick it is shown the last surviving veteran of the 9th Virginia Cavalry was Francis Marion Embrey, who died in 1941. However, James Fife Lumsden of company E, died on September 24, 1945
• The men of the 9th Cavalry were a moderately tall lot. About 17% of them were at least 6 feet tall. Private Barnes and Thomas, at five feet one inch, were two inches shorter than anyone else whose height is on record. Six foot five inch Henry Wiatt and his half inch taller comrade Joseph Chewning cap the scale at the other end.
• The record of the 9th Cavalry was bought at the cost of at least 124 fatal casualties in action. Taken together with the 81 deaths caused by disease, the fatality rate for the regiment reaches 11.3% of the 1815 men who served -- slightly more than one in every nine. During the war the regiment also suffered the loss of at least (and probably far more than) 264 men wounded in action, 266 men taken prisoner and 21 men who were both wounded and captured at the same time. The sum of those figures shows that at least 37.2% of the men who rode with the 9th Cavalry were casualties of enemy action.

Personal anecdotes

• On June 21, 1996, while visiting our older brother Jack, we (Ellen and ?) went to see the one remaining cousin of our mother, Mrs. Travis Hubbard (Mary)...Mrs. Hubbard is a sweet, spritely eighty-three year old lady who is somewhat confined to her wheel chair. Her pretty little home is, as I suspected, quite near to the Old Home Place that Mam described in her writings. .... First I wanted time frames for when Mama lived where. This was clarified: Mama lived with her grandparents Van Field Clark and Ann Overton Clark until her grandfather died. At that time she was nine years old and her grandmother gave up the old home place and went to live with her son, Jasper Clark. At this time, the year 1911, ...there was not room at Great Uncle Jasper's home as he had a very large family.

• Tall, fair and blue eyed according to Hazel's dairy, hair was light but in youth had been very dark.

• from Ann Crymes' "The Crymes Family Roots" -
  • 1850 Census placed him in the household of his father at the age of fourteen years.
  • Marriage record, located in book 1746 - 1929, page twelve, Lunenburg County Virginia , stated he was a Farmer when married. He was a Confederate soldier, his grave marker reads: CO G, 9 VA Cav.
  • His will, dated May 3, 1908, proven November 17, 1911, recorded in W. B. # 14, page twelve, Lunenburg county, Virginia. His will named his wife and three children, Mary Susan, Jasper R. and James E. Clark. Mary Susan was deceased when the will was written. He and his wife were parents [acted as parents] to Hazel Savoy, Mary Susan’s daughter, and to Martha Ellen Clark, daughter of Jasper Clark, up to his [Van Buren’s] death. He is buried in the Clark family cemetery in Lunenburg County Virginia.
  • (wife Ann) went to live with her son Jasper after her husband died. She is buried in the Clark family cemetery Lunenburg County Virginia.

• from Hazel Crymes' "Treasure Chest of Memories" -
  • Grandpa (Van Buren Clark) overheard the captain discussing the need for a plan to take an emergency message to another confederate company. He volunteered immediately. This excellent horseman "snatched the paper from the captain's hand and galloped directly toward the Federal soldiers." No shots were fired as Union soldiers gave way to the "charging, rearing horse and rider". VanBuren was able to pass through Federal lines and delivered the paper safely. After returning to his home unit he learned that he had risked his life for naught. The paper held by the captain was blank; the discussion had been hypothetical. The incident was written up in the Richmond paper and there was great acclaim for his horsemanship from both Union and Confederate soldiers. He was greatly embarrassed and did not want to accept the acclaim and h onors so he allowed another soldier to claim the credit. Later in life, he stated that it did not bother him that someone else took credit for his horsemanship. Hazel knew other men who had witnessed the event and was told that they had never seen such horsemanship before or after.
  • Hazel also wrote that VanBuren Clark was one of group of 12 soldiers reputed to have never lost a fight, often fighting back to back. According to her grandpa, these soldiers survived by being super alert to danger. They also supposedly did not accept a fellow soldier into their group because of his lack of belief in prayer and God. They were afraid to take responsibility for this man without God's help.
  • Her grandpa also told her stories of escaping by running when told to halt and a story of man who lost his life following a piece of blowing newspaper. He chased it in his desire to get the news. It was a Union ploy and he lost his life.
  • Hazel also remembered being taught to appreciate "the Handiworks of God" by her grandpa, such as why God put weeds among the crops.
  • Early in their marriage, VanBuren and Ann Clark had a farm neighboring that of Dr. John A Johns, who was the great uncle of Durell Crymes, Hazel's future husband.

• Another story related by Hazel Savoy Crymes re Van Field Clark: (paraphrased) -

  During the "War between the States" Van was walking through the woods when he happened upon a small blonde federal soldier. He was able to surprise the soldier and had the upper hand as the Union soldier jumped into a crevice of a crumbling building that was there in the woods. He wasn't able to completely shield himself. His belly with the brass button of his uniform jacket were left exposed and Van held his gun on the soldier. "Knowing he could be hit in the stomach was too much for this Yankee" so he stuck his head out and made a very funny face. Van later told Hazel it was the funniest face he had ever seen. The Yankee officer pleaded not be captured, explaining that someone else would simply take his place as officer. Van let him go.

• Later during the War, Van was grazed on the skull (Civil War records say mandible) and knocked out and captured. He was held captive by young Union recruits until the appropriate officers could take over. As the officers arrived, Van, sitting among a ring of about 50 soldiers, looked up to see "Old Funny Face". "Funny Face" ran over to Van and appeared furious with him, making pop-eyed awful faces. It was soon agreed that "Funny Face" could take Van out and immediately shoot him. When they were out of ear-shot of the others, "Funny Face" bid Van farewell and fired his gun in the air. They did not see each other for the rest of the war, but wrote to each other as the years went by. Family spoke of "Funny Face" as having a face for every occasion, but Hazel did not remember hearing his real name spoken.

Sources

• Birth - not found
• 1840, age 4, under father Field - not found
• 1850, age 14 - VA, Lunenburg, image 94, family 720. "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M8D8-ZYK : 23 December 2020), Vanburen F Clark in household of Field Clark, Lunenburg, Lunenburg, Virginia, United States; citing family , NARA microfilm publication (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
• 1860, age 24 - link not found. Lunenburg, Virginia; Roll: M653_1359; Page: 1040; Image: 704; Family History Library Film: 805359
• 1867 marriage - not found
• 1870, age 32 - VA, Lunenburg, Pleasant Grove, page 26, family 189. "United States Census, 1870", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFGG-BN5 : 29 May 2021), Van Buren Clark, 1870.
• 1880, age 45 - VA, Lunenburg, Pleasant Grove, ED 138, pages 24+25, family 179. "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MC5J-TQG : 29 December 2021), Vanlusin Clark, Pleasant Grove, Lunenburg, Virginia, United States; citing enumeration district , sheet , NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm .
• 1900, age 65 - VA, Lunenburg, Pleasant Grove, ED 39, sheet 5B, family 88. "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MMNR-Z1Q : accessed 1 January 2022), Van * Clark, Pleasant Grove District, Lunenburg, Virginia, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 39, sheet 5B, family 88, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,241,716.
• 1910, age 74 - VA, Lunenburg, Pleasant Grove, ED 46, sheet 8A, family 142. "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MPPW-BG5 : accessed 9 January 2022), Van F Clark, Pleasant Grove, Lunenburg, Virginia, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 46, sheet 8A, family 142, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 1634; FHL microfilm 1,375,647.
• Death - not found
• Obituary - not found
• Burial - Find A Grave: Memorial #86051268

• Family Search - Vanburen Field Clark

holdover sources from GEDCOM

• The Crymes Family Roots, by Ann M. Crymes
• "Treasure Chest of Memories", by Hazel Savoy Crymes, transcribed by Ellen Crymes Wilkinson in 1996. Copyrighted 1996. Copies held with Hazel's children and Grandchildren. Not to be published.
• "9th Va Calvary", by Robert K Krich. Copyright 1982. Obtained from Ann Crymes who obtained from Henry Hubbard.
• "9th Calvary in VA, compiled from records of the late Colonel R. L. T. Beale" Roster of Each company. Additional descriptions and histories.
• "The 9th Regiment Virginia Volunteers"
• Virginia, Select Marriages, 1785-1940. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc; Provo, UT, USA; 2014.
• U.S. Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1925-1963. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Provo, UT, USA; 2012.
• U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865. Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, UT, USA; 2009.
• Virginia 1910 Census Miracode Index. National Archives and Records Administration. Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Provo, UT, USA; 2000.
• American Civil War Soldiers Record
• Library of Virginia; Richmond, Virginia; Confederate Pension Rolls, Veterans and Widows; Collection #: CP-5_119; Roll #: 119; Roll Description: Louisa County (surnames Hi - W) to Lunenburg County (surnames A - G)
• Alabama, Texas and Virginia, Confederate Pensions, 1884-1958. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Provo, UT, USA; 2010.