Akin Montgomery AL bm.  Although Clanton personally was opposed to secession, he chose to follow his home state and the Confederate cause in 1861. He first served along the Florida coast until the fall, when he was appointed a captain in the Alabama Cavalry on November 12. Soon after Clanton was given command of the 1st Alabama Cavalry regiment and was promoted to the rank of colonel on December 3.[3]Clanton's first major action was during the Battle of Shiloh on April 6–7, 1862, in which he was part of the leading Confederate units on the battle's first day. Clanton next fought in the battle near Farmington, Mississippi, on May 9, and then led a brigade during the Battle of Booneville on July 1, where he "drove the enemy from the field."[2] Sometime in 1862 Clanton resigned from the army, but was later reappointed a colonel in the Confederate service. His next assignment was as an aide-de-camp to Alabama governor John G. Shorter, and later in the same capacity to Gen. Braxton Bragg. During the spring of 1863 Clanton raised three additional regiments of infantry. Beginning that September he was given command of the 2nd Brigade in the Confederate Gulf District, holding this post into early 1864.[4]1864 Atlanta CampaignClanton was promoted to the rank of brigadier general on November 16, 1863.[5] From February to June 1864 he served as aide-de-camp to Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk, and then he led the cavalry brigade of the North District in the Confederate Department of Alabama and Eastern Mississippi, a unit often styled as "Clanton's Cavalry Brigade."[4] Clanton fought during the 1864 Atlanta Campaign, notably in the engagement on July 14 at the Ten Island Ford of the Coosa River against Union Maj. Gen. Lovell H. Rousseau. In this battle Clanton reportedly "lost his entire staff" and "His bravery made him well known by the generals of the Army of Tennessee."On September 23, 1864, Clanton's command was shifted to the District of Central Alabama in the Confederate Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and Eastern Louisiana until that November. In January 1865 Clanton was appointed to command the Cavalry Brigade of the District of the Gulf within the same department. On March 25 he was badly wounded in the fighting at Bluff Springs in Florida. Clanton was hit in his abdomen and his back, and was captured there by Union soldiers. Clanton was paroled from Mobile, Alabama, on May 25 and allowed to go home to Alabama.[4]