Marcellus Jerome Clarke Marcellus Jerome Clarke ( also called M . Jerome Clarke ) ( 1844 – March 15 , 1865 ) was a Confederate captain who in 1864 became one of Kentucky ' s most famous guerrillas . He was rumored to be " Sue Mundy " , a character publicized by George Prentice , editor of the " Louisville Journal " . Confederate soldier . Marcellus Jerome Clarke was born in Franklin , Kentucky in 1844 . At the age of 17 in 1861 , he enlisted as M . Jerome Clarke in the 4th Kentucky Infantry , 1st Kentucky " Orphan " Brigade , Confederate States Army ( CSA ) . While with the 4th Kentucky , Clarke was captured at Fort Donelson and later escaped from Camp Morgan . He saw action with the 4th Kentucky at the Battle of Chickamauga . Clarke was reassigned to Morgan ' s Men , the unit headed by Brig . Gen . John Hunt Morgan . By then he was a captain . While with Morgan ' s Men , he took part in Morgan ' s last raid through Kentucky in the summer of 1864 . Confederate guerrilla . Following Morgan ' s death on September 4 , 1864 , Clarke formed his own guerrilla band , and returned to Kentucky in October . He raided throughout the state , killing Union soldiers and destroying supplies . His raids seemed to inspire the " Louisville Journal " ' s stories of the infamous " Sue Mundy " , and caused Major General Stephen G . Burbridge , military governor of Kentucky , substantial embarrassment . Combined with the fact that Clarke ' s gang ( referred to by the " Journal " as " Mundy ' s Gang " ) had joined with William Quantrill ' s Raiders , Clarke was seen as a dangerous enemy of the Union . On the night of February 2 , 1865 , this joint force of Quantrill and Clarke rode into Lair Station , Kentucky and burned the railroad depot and freight cars . A week later on February 8 , 1865 , the guerrillas killed three soldiers , took four more prisoners , and destroyed the remnants of a wagon train . Capture and hanging . On March 12 , 1865 , fifty Union soldiers from the 30th Wisconsin Infantry , under the command of Major Cyrus Wilson , surrounded a tobacco barn ten miles south of Brandenburg near Breckinridge County . They were to capture Clarke and his gang . Four Union soldiers were wounded in the altercation . With Clarke were Henry Medkiff and Henry C . Magruder , wounded in an earlier attack . Major Wilson escorted the three men to Brandenburg , where they boarded a steamer for Louisville . Military authorities kept Clarke ' s trial a secret , and the verdict had been decided the day before the trial . He pleaded to be treated as a prisoner of war but was tried as a guerrilla . On March 14 , military authorities planned Clarke ' s execution , even though the trial had not started . At the brief hearing , Clarke was said to have " stood firm and spoke with perfect composure . " Clarke stated that he was a regular Confederate soldier and that the crimes he was being charged with he had not committed , or they had been committed by Quantrill . During the three - hour trial , Clarke was not allowed counsel or witnesses for his defense . Three days after his capture , Union authorities scheduled Clarke for public hanging just west of the corner of 18th and Broadway in Louisville . On March 15 , Rev . J . J . Talbott visited the 20 - year - old Clarke in prison and notified him that he would be hanged that afternoon . Reportedly Clarke knelt and prayed , asking Talbott to baptize him . With Clarke dictating , the minister wrote four letters for him : to Clarke ' s aunt , his cousin , a young lady named Lashbrook , and his fiancee . Clarke ' s last requests were for his body to be sent to his aunt and stepmother in Franklin to be buried in his Confederate uniform , next to his parents . When the carriage arrived at the gallows , Clarke gave one last statement to the crowd . He said : " I am a regular Confederate soldier - not a guer [ r ] illa . . . I have served in the Army for nearly four years . . . I fought under General Buckner at Fort Donelson and I belonged to General Morgan ' s command when I entered Kentucky . " His last words were " I believe in and die for the Confederate cause . " Several thousand people were estimated to have attended Clarke ' s execution , attracted by rumors that he was " Sue Mundy " . After authorities cut Clarke ' s body down from the scaffold , some witnesses cut off buttons from his coat as keepsakes . Police arrested three men for fighting over his hat . On October 29 , 1865 , Union authorities hanged Henry Magruder behind the walls of the Louisville Military Prison . He had been allowed to heal from his wounds before being hanged . Before his death , Magruder wrote his memoir and declared he was the real " Sue Mundy " . Thus ended the careers of two famous Kentucky guerrillas .