Alexander Keith McClung

Alexander McClung
Alexander McClung
	McClung, before 1855
2nd United States Ambassador to Bolivia
	In office; 1849–1851
President	Zachary Taylor; Millard Fillmore
Preceded by	John Appleton
Succeeded by	Horace H. Miller
Personal details
Born	1811; Virginia
Died	March 23, 1855 (aged 43–44); Mississippi
Citizenship	United States
Nationality	American
Relations	John Marshall (uncle)
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch/service	United States Army
Years of service	1846–48
Rank	Lieutenant colonel
Battles/wars	Mexican-American War

Alexander Keith McClung (14 June 1811 – 23 March 1855) briefly served as US chargé d'affaires to Bolivia in President Zachary Taylor's administration.^[1] An "inveterate Southern duelist"^[2] nicknamed "The Black Knight of the South", he was also a poet. James H. Street used him as the model for the character Keith Alexander in his novel Tap Roots (1942).

McClung was born in Fauquier County, Virginia, and was the nephew of John Marshall. He served as lieutenant colonel of the 1st Mississippi Regiment during the Mexican–American War. He committed suicide in the Eagle Hotel in Jackson, Mississippi. McClung was interred at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Vicksburg, Mississippi.^[3]

Notes

^ "Alexander Keith McClung (1812–1855)". U.S. Department of State: Office of the Historian. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
^ Holland, Barbara (October 1997). "Bang! Bang! You're Dead". Smithsonian magazine. The Smithsonian. p. 4. Archived from the original on 18 December 2011. Retrieved 3 June 2012. Hair triggers fell into disrepute, but speed and accuracy continued to improve, particularly for shooting at greater distances. (In 1834 Alexander McClung, inveterate Southern duelist, set a new record by fatally shooting his man in the mouth with a percussion pistol at over a hundred feet.)
^ Cedar Hill Cemetery tombstone database (McClung, Col. Alexander K.) Archived 11 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2015-08-21.

References

Lowry, Robert; McCardle, William (1891). A History of Mississippi. Jackson, MS: RH Henry and Company. OCLC 000000.
McClung, William (1904). The McClung Genealogy. Pittsburgh, PA: McClung Publishing Company. OCLC 5148800.
Paxton, William (1885). The Marshall Family. Cincinnati, OH: Robert Clark and Company. OCLC 000000.

External links

Alexander Keith McClung entry at The Political Graveyard
Alexander Keith McClung at Find a Grave (born 1811) and also here (born 1809)

[1] "Alexander Keith McClung (1812–1855)". U.S. Department of State: Office of the Historian. Retrieved 3 June 2012.

[2] Holland, Barbara (October 1997). "Bang! Bang! You're Dead". Smithsonian magazine. The Smithsonian. p. 4. Archived from the original on 18 December 2011. Retrieved 3 June 2012. Hair triggers fell into disrepute, but speed and accuracy continued to improve, particularly for shooting at greater distances. (In 1834 Alexander McClung, inveterate Southern duelist, set a new record by fatally shooting his man in the mouth with a percussion pistol at over a hundred feet.)

[3] Cedar Hill Cemetery tombstone database (McClung, Col. Alexander K.) Archived 11 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2015-08-21.

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