This young man stodd 6'7" tall and had a full red beard along with red hair. As anyone who understands the war will know, the color bearer more or less had a bulls eye on him. The flag bearer was the one person that you wanted to get rid of....if no one was carrying the flag, how will the remainder of the soldiers know where to go or what to do. With the average height of a Civil War soldier being around 5'8", Clinton stood heads above the rest. This didn't help him as being a target. And the red hair also made him a target for the Union army.
Clinton Hatcher came from a Quaker family who resided in Leesburg, Virginia (the place where the Battle of Ball's Bluff took place). Although the Quaker's generally were pacifists, Clinton was a strong supporter of secession and had very deep patriotic feelings, so off to war he went...joining right before the !st Battle of Bull Run (exactly 3 months prior to the battle at Ball's Bluff). He quit his studies at Columbian College (now George Washington University) in Washington, D.C. to enlist.
There's a story that Clinton Hatcher had visited the White House one time while a student at Columbian College. Abraham Lincoln saw him from across the room and said, "I always make it a point to shake the hands of someone who is taller than I am." There was never any proof that President Lincoln ever shook Clinton's hand, but it does make a rather compelling story.
Today, Clinton rests at the Ketoctin Baptist Church cemetery near Purcellville in Virginia. Here is a young man who literally gave all that he had so that he could help his country in the pursuit of what they thought was right. This is one of our TRUE heros!
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