Biography of Colonel Clarke Mouton Avery

A brief commander of a brigade in the Third Corps, Colonel Clarke Avery spent most of his career with the Confederacy as a prisoner of war.

Born in North Carolina in 1819, Avery began his CSA career as captain of Company C, 1st North Carolina. He was soon promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 33rd North Carolina and by January 1862 to the colonel of that unit. Avery fought at Big Bethel with the 1st North Carolina. He was captured and taken prisoner, however, at the debacle at New Bern in March of 1862.

He was released around October 1863, though he is listed as a temporary brigade commander for Lane's Brigade at Gettysburg in the Official Records. Returning to command of his regiment, Avery commanded it until mortally wounded at Spotsylvania on May 12, 1864. He died on June 18, 1864. A few accounts list Avery as killed in the Wilderness on May 6.