Pvt Clarence B Pratt

31 January 2020

19 year old Private Clarence Byron Pratt of the Minden Blues – Company G, 8th Louisiana Infantry – was wounded in action at Sharpsburg in September 1862 and captured there. He was exchanged and furloughed home in November but never returned to his Company. In October 1863 he enlisted in a State Guard cavalry unit, but was captured in Louisiana in November, and spent the rest of the war in Federal prisons.

He started a newspaper in Minden, LA and was elected to the state legislature in 1868, but he tangled with County Judge and former Minden Blues Captain John L Lewis in the press and in the capitol, and Lewis’ son Robert shot Pratt in a duel in August 1868. Pratt died in December 1869 at age 27. His cause of death is not known, but his dueling wound may have contributed.

This excellent photograph of Pratt in uniform was contributed to his Findagrave memorial by Edward Wenzell.

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