Clay Allison: Civil War Soldier Turned Gunfighter

A young Clay Allison

       Robert Clay Allison was born in 1840 in Waynesboro, Tennessee. Like Jesse James, Allison’s father was also a minister, but died when he was only five years old. At some point in his childhood he received a blow to the head that left a depression in his skull. This may explain why he suffered from wild mood swings and a very short temper that only got worse the older he became. 

       He was described as tall with an perfect posture and dark complexioned. He appeared to be a gentleman until one of his mood swings struck. Allison was also noted to have no fear of any man. 

       Although Clay Allison was born with a club foot, it didn’t prevent him from joining the Confederate army when the Civil War began. He enlisted in the Tennessee Light Artillery. Several times he threatened to kill his superior officers for not pursuing retreating enemy troops. 

       His commanding officers were probably looking for an excuse to get rid Clay, because he was medically discharged from the artillery for “emotional or physical excitement of a mixed character, partly epileptic and partly maniacal.” When Clay drank, this condition only became worse.

       Nine months after being discharged, Clay Allison enlisted in the 9th Tennessee Cavalry. He managed to serve the rest of the war without being discharged for his condition. He soon became a scout for General Nathan Bedford Forrest and grew his mustache and beard in the same manner. He would keep this look for the rest of his life. 

Allison in his Bedford Forrest style beard and mustache

       When Forrest surrendered his command at the end of the war, Allison wasn’t treated as a prisoner of war, but charged as a spy by the Federal army. He was then sentenced to be shot. The night before his scheduled execution, he killed his guard and escaped. 

       He returned to Waynesboro, Tennessee and joined the Ku Klux Klan. When a Union soldier arrived to seize the Allison’s property, he shot and killed the man. The Allison family then moved to Texas where he became a rancher. 

       It is believed he killed a neighbor with a bowie knife in a quarrel over the use of a waterhole. When a man named Charles Kennedy was arrested for robbery, Clay broke into the jail, tied a rope around the mans neck and dragged him behind his horse until he was dead. He then cut Kennedy’s head off and carried it to the St. James Hotel where he placed it on a post. 

       

St. James Hotel where Allison carried Kennedy's head

       In 1871, in an attempt to steal government mules, he accidentally shot himself in the foot. Chunk Colbert, a gunfighter with six kills came looking for Clay. He bragged that Clay Allison would be his seventh kill. Colbert found Clay and together they went to dinner. After eating, Colbert drew his gun beneath the table and fired. The bullet struck the table and deflected away from Clay. Clay then drew his pistol and shot Colbert in the head. When asked why he had accepted a meal with Colbert, Clay replied, “Because I didn’t want to send a man to hell on an empty stomach.”

Clay Allison after shooting himself in the foot

       Colbert’s friend Charles Cooper went missing two weeks after the murder and many blamed Allison, but no evidence was ever found to support this claim. 

       Franklin Tolby, a minister and friend of Clay Allison was found shot in the back during the Colfax War and Allison decided to settle the matter himself. He then led a lynch mob that hung a Mexican named Cruz Vega that he believed was guilty of killing the minister. Vega was hanged, but told that his uncle  Francisco "Pancho" Griego was actually behind the murder. 

       Later that day, Francisco Griego arrived at a saloon where Allison was drinking. He attempted to draw his pistol, but Allison was too fast for him and shot twice killing him instantly. 

       In 1876, Allison killed a deputy sheriff who had shot his brother John while trying to disarm the two men at a local dance. His brother would recover and both men would be released because the shooting was thought to have been in self defense. 

       

Clay Allison two years before his death

       This would be the last killing by Allison. He would soon move to Missouri and bragged that he had killed fifteen men. In 1887, he fell from his wagon and the wheels rolled across his neck nearly decapitating him. He was forty-seven years old. He rests today in Pecos Cemetery, Pecos, Texas. He is famous for once remarking, “I never killed a man that didn’t need killing.”

Confederate tombstone for Clay Allison

John Jackson Dickison: Swamp Fox of the Confederacy

        John Jackson Dickison was born on March 17, 1816 in Virginia. His father wanted him to become a soldier, but the boy proved to be prone to sickness growing up. By the time he turned 16, his father was forced to send him to live with relatives in South Carolina in the hopes that the climate there would improve his health. 

         He continued to live and work in South Carolina, serving in the militia there until 1856 when he purchased a plantation in Marion County, Florida. He began the Civil War as a lieutenant in the Marion Light Artillery, but early in 1862 he received permission to form his own company of cavalry. This unit became Company H of the 2nd Florida Cavalry and Dickison was promoted to captain.

          He would lead his men on several daring raids throughout the war, but his more famous actions came in 1864. His took fifty men and captured the Federal steamer called "Columbine" without the loss of a single soldier. A few days later at Palatka, Florida,  he took thirty men and forced a 280 man Federal detachment to retreat six miles. The Federals lost 72 men in this action while Dickison reported the loss of only two men. One of the losses was his son Charles Dickison who was killed. 

         Later in the year, he would take a couple hundred men to Jacksonville, Florida and route 380 Federal cavalrymen, capturing 150 prisoners, killing 30 while only losing 6 men of his own. Because of these actions he would earn two nicknames, "Swamp Fox" and "The Forrest of Florida".

         As the war came to a close, John Dickison surrendered to Federal authorities as a captain. His commission to colonel reached him after the surrender. Today, he is remembered as Colonel Dickison, although he never held that rank during the war. 

          He died on August 23, 1902 in Ocala, Florida and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Jacksonville, Florida.