Civil War Confederate Brigadier General. He was the son of Nathaniel Holt Clanton and a Miss Mary Ann Clayton. The family settled in Macon County, Alabama in 1835 and that is where he grew up and went to school. He enrolled at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, but his higher education was cut short when he volunteered for the US Army in the war with Mexico. He enlisted as a private in Captain Rush Elmore's Company, Colonel Bailie Peyton's Regiment. After his six month enlistment, he enlisted with Captain Preston Brooks of the Palmetto Regiment. By the time they reached Mexico, the occupation of Mexico City had ended. After the war he returned to his study of law and was admitted to the bar in 1850 and he settled in Montgomery, Alabama. He served in the Alabama legislature and was an elector on the Presidential ticket of Bell and Everett in 1860. He opposed secession, but favored unity so he promptly went into the Confederate Army when Alabama voted for secession. Having had military experience, he was elected captain of a mounted company. He served on the Florida coast until the fall of 1861 when he was promoted to colonel in the First Alabama Cavalry. After seeing action at Shiloh and Farmington, he led a brigade into Booneville and drove the enemy from the field. He raised three more regiments in the spring of 1863 and was commissioned as brigadier-general in the provisional army of the Confederate States. In 1864 he was engaged in a bloody fight with Gen Rousseau at Ten Islands on the Coosa River, in which he lost his entire staff. His bravery made him well known by the generals of the Army of Tennessee. His brigade was moved to the department of Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana. In 1865 he replaced Gen Baker at Pollard and later engaged an enemy raiding party. In March of 1865 he was badly wounded and captured at Bluff Springs, Fl. While recovering from his wounds, he was released on May 25, 1865. He returned to his law practice and resumed his role as a leader of the Alabama Democratic Party. He was murdered by a political rival, David M. Nelson, who shot Clanton at Knoxville, Tennessee.