Fletcher was born on April 8, 1817, at Nashville, Tennessee. He became prominent in the profession of law and, during the Polk administration, was appointed a United States marshal. An attorney in Hinds County, Mississippi in 1850, he later moved to Arkansas County, Arkansas. Turning to elective politics, he represented the 18th district in the Arkansas Senate from 1858 to 1864, and in the State government in exile at Washington, Arkansas until the end of the American Civil War.