Thomas Clark (North Carolina)

Thomas Clark (August 1741 – 25 December 1792) was an American officer from North Carolina who fought in the American Revolutionary War. Born to parents Thomas Clark and Barbara Murray, he became a brother-in-law to William Hooper, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence. On 1 September 1775 he was elected Major of the 1st North Carolina Regiment. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on 10 April 1776 and led the regiment at the Battle of Sullivan's Island in June of that year. Elevated in rank to colonel of the 1st North Carolina on 5 February 1777, he led the unit at Brandywine and Germantown in the late summer and fall of 1777.

Clark was present at Barren Hill and commanded the North Carolina Brigade at the Battle of Monmouth on 28 June 1778. After the action, he sat on the court martial that convicted Charles Lee. He was passed over for promotion to brigadier general, with Jethro Sumner and James Hogun being raised to that rank in January 1779. After operations around New York City, Clark joined the march of Hogun's North Carolina Brigade to Charleston, South Carolina, arriving on 3 April 1780. He was captured by the British on 12 May 1780 at the end of the Siege of Charleston. After his imprisonment, he was so ill that he resigned on 1 January 1783 from the Continental Army. In 1782 he married the widow of Francis Nash, who was killed at Germantown, but she died a year later. He received a promotion to brigadier general from the state legislature on 30 September 1783. After the war he was founding vice-president of the North Carolina Society of the Cincinnati. Plagued by ill health, he became blind and remained an invalid until he died at Point Repose Plantation, which he had acquired from his uncle James Murray (loyalist). He died on 25 December 1792.