PRESENTATION OF THE PORTRAIT
OF THE LATE CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE
SUPREME COURT
WALTER CLARK
BY THE
HONORABLE JAMES A. LOCKHART
OCTOBER 28th. 1924
May it Please the Court: Commissioned by (lie family of the late
Chief Justice Walter Clark, I herewith present a portrait of that
distinguished jurist, that his likeness upon these walls may constitute
a perpetual and visible memorial of his virtues and achievements. The
late Cyrus Watson said that the average North Carolinian slept sounder
because he knew that Walter Clark stood guard at the outer door of
the temple of justice, and it is fitting that his image should look down
upon the labors of those who succeed him in his exalted duties.
Walter Clark was born 19 August, 1S46, on the plantation of his
father, in Halifax County, N. C. The son of Gen. David Clark, the
only general officer called into the service of the Confederate States
from the State troops of North Carolina, and his wife, Anna Maria
Thorne, he inherited the strong physical and mental characteristics of
a pure British stock who had been for four generations transplanted to
Carolina soil. His early youth was spent upon the vast plantation
which had been the property of his ancestors for many generations,
amid surroundings now gone, but which tended to develop qualities of
leadership and habits of command almost from infancy. He here
learned to fear God, revere womanhood, and respect the rights of his
fellow-man.
In the fall of I860 he entered Tew Military School, at Hillsboro,
N. C., and was engaged in his academic and military training when
North Carolina seceded from the Union and became a party to the War
Between the States. He deemed it his duty to answer the call to arms
and entered the service in May, 1863, at the age of 14, being appointed
lieutenant and drill master by the Governor, and was attached to Petti¬
grew’s 22d N. C. Regiment, went with it in August, 1861, to Virginia,
and served on the Potomac, where it supported the land batteries at
Evansport; 1st August, 1862, was appointed adjutant and first lieu¬
tenant of the 35th N. C. Regiment, commanded by Col. Matt. W.
Ransom (afterwards United States Senator) ; was in hearing of the
guns, but not engaged at the battle of Second Manassas; served in the
first Maryland campaign; was at the capture of Harper’s Ferry, 15th
September, and at the battle of Sharpsburg, Md., 17th September,
