PVT John E. Clemmer was born in 1835 in Augusta County, Virginia. He was the 9th of the 14 children born to John Cyrus and Diannah Virginia (Crick or Creek) Clemmer. His father farmed in Rockbridge County in what is referred to District 51 on the 1850 census but is actually Disctrict 6 (VI in the Roman numerals on maps of the time) that is in the area of Steele's Tavern just south of the Augusta County line. John Cyrus Clemmer died 29 Oct 1857. With his father dead and many of his older siblings married and having moved away from the family farm, John apparently made the decision to live with and farm for his brother William near to Staunton, Virginia.
The whole country was moving towards war and, after the events at Fort Sumpter Virginia voted to succeed on 17 Apr 1861 and John and several of his brothers enlisted on that same day and mustered with D Company 5th Virginia Infantry on 25 May 1861. John was with the unit until 3 Jul 1863 at Gettysburg where he was wounded in the head. PVT Clemmer recovered from his wound and rejoined his unit in April 1864. It was not long before he was again involved in combat in the Battle of The Wilderness. Soon after the unit was caught in the Mule Shoe salient in the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House and he was captured with many other men from the 5th Virginia. Sent to Fort Delaware in the Delaware River along the Delaware and New Jersey border, PVT Clemmer was held there until he succumbed to dysentery and died on 19 Mar 1865. As with many of those prisoners who died there he was taken across the river and buried in an unmarked grave at what is now Finn's Point National Cemetery in Pennsville, New Jersey.
PVT Clemmer was captured at Spotsylvania Court House on 12 May 1864 and ultimately confined at Fort Delaware which was on Pea Patch Island in the middle of the Delaware River. He died of disease there on 19 Mar 1865.
PVT Clemmer is buried in the Finn's Point National Cemetery on the eastern shore of the Delaware River in Salem County, New Jersey directly across the river from Fort Delaware.
Other family members served during the American Civil War as well. Brothers, Jacob Franklin Clemmer, George Lewis Clemmer, William Letcher Clemmer and Henry Clay Clemmer, also served as PVTs in D Company 5th Virginia Infantry. Brother Joseph Alexander Clemmer served as a PVT in H Company 14th Virginia Cavalry.
