Stirring Up a Hornet's Nest: - UGA Laboratory of Archaeology ...

his family, along with several hundred other Patriot refugees to the mountains. In their absence the British
and Loyalists destroyed many settlements and forts in Wilkes County.
Clarke’s second Georgia plantation, called “Woburn” was located in present-day Lincoln County, portions
of which were inundated by the construction of Lake Clark Hill (McCall 2004, Volume I: 14; Ebel 1996).
This plantation was formerly the plantation of Colonel Thomas Waters, a prominent Loyalist and
Provincial Ranger officer whose land was confiscated by the Georgia government. Clarke was given
Waters’ plantation by the State of Georgia as a gift for his service to the state in the American Revolution
and he was living there by 1782 (Candler 1908, Volume III:116).
Elijah Clarke served the Patriot cause as a militia officer throughout the American Revolution. He was
commissioned as a Lieutenant Colonel in Colonel John Stewart’s 1 st Battalion in 1777. Stewart’s Battalion
was authorized for two years of service and it participated in the East Florida campaign in May and June,
1778. The 1 st and 2 nd Battalions of Georgia minutemen were officially disbanded on March 1, 1778, prior to
participation in the East Florida campaign, where, at the battle of Alligator Creek, Clarke was badly
wounded. Clarke recuperated from his wounds at Sunbury, Georgia and later returned to Wilkes County.
Clarke received another commission as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Wilkes County militia only a few
weeks before the battle of Kettle Creek, on January 26, 1779 (Candler 1908, Volume 2:136-137; 2001). He
was second in command of the Georgia militia at Kettle Creek. Clarke is credited with achieving the rout
of the Loyalists at Kettle Creek after he pursued them across the creek and to a hill on its western side. That
status was confirmed by the present research.
Colonel John Dooly’s death in July 1780 led to Elijah Clarke’s advancement in the Georgia militia for the
duration of the war. Clarke commanded Georgia and South Carolina militia troops at battles in Augusta,
Savannah, and numerous engagements in South Carolina and North Carolina. He also participated in
Colonel Pickens’ campaign against the Lower Cherokee towns. Following the first battle of Augusta in
September1780, Clarke led a group of Wilkes County refugees to the Blue Ridge Mountains, where they
joined with other Patriots. That group of soldiers, also known as the Overmountain men, helped to turn the
tide of the war against the British with their participation in the battles of King’s Mountain, Cowpens and
other places in the Carolinas. Elijah Clarke is Georgia’s most celebrated Revolutionary War hero. Clarke
continued to serve as a military leader in the Georgia militia after the American Revolution. His creation of
a “Trans-Oconee Republic” was received by the U.S. Government as a treasonous act. In early 1790 he led
the Georgia troops against the Creek Indians in several engagements. General Elijah Clarke died on
December 15, 1799 (McCall 2004, Volume I: 14).
Several portraits of Elijah Clarke have survived. All of these are likely derived from an original oil on
ivory miniature portrait of Elijah Clarke, possibly painted by noted artist Rembrandt Peale. Peale was born
in 1778 and he achieved fame when he painted George Washington in 1795. Numerous examples of
miniature portraits on ivory by Peale are known to exist.
One early oil portrait of Elijah Clarke is privately owned by a family descendant and is housed in Mobile,
Alabama (Louise S. Thoman personal communication February 14, 2009). It is shown in Figure 9.
Thoman, who has researched the provenance of this artwork, suspects that the first oil on canvas portrait
was made from an ivory miniature for which Elijah Clarke sat, shortly after the end of the American
Revolution. Two additional paintings were commissioned based on this portrait, one for Drury Thompson
and the other for Ann Clark Campbell. Ann Clark Campbell, daughter of Elijah Clarke’s son John, wrote to
Lyman C. Draper in 1872 with some information about the portrait, which is contained in the Draper
manuscripts. In excerpt from this letter Ann Campbell stated,
I have heard my Mother say that my grandfather Gen'l Clark was one of the handsomest & most courtly men in his
appearance and manners she ever saw. He was a little over six feet in height, and had blue or rather gray eyes, brown or
sandy hair, with a fair complexion. The portrait I have was taken from a miniature painting for [sic] Genl Elijah Clark soon
after the close of the war. His children not thinking it did him justice refused to take it. But my mother insisted upon
keeping it. Mr. Drury Thompson, my cousin, hearing it was in my possession, had a portrait for himself & one for me taken
from it. The only change made was in the color of the coat. The miniature represented the old revolutionary uniform of pale
blue & buff, the artist claimed the privelege of changing it to a dark blue (Campbell 1872, in Draper Manuscripts).
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