Alexander Keith McClung
{{Short description|American duelist (1811–1855)}}
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{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Alexander McClung
| image = "Black Knight and His Weapon" Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, Mississippi, October 6, 1929.jpg
| caption = "Black Knight and His Weapon" Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, Mississippi, October 6, 1929; this is possibly the derringer with which he committed suicide
| order = 2nd
| ambassador_from = United States
| country = Bolivia
| term_start = 1849
| term_end = 1851
| predecessor = John Appleton
| successor = Horace H. Miller
| president = Zachary Taylor
Millard Fillmore
| birth_date = {{Birth date text|1811}}
| birth_place = Fauquier County, Virginia
| death_date = {{BirthDeathAge |df=yes||1811|||1855|03|23}}
| death_place = Jackson, Mississippi
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| citizenship = United States
| nationality = American
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| relations = John Marshall (uncle)
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| allegiance = {{Flag|United States|1846}}
| branch = {{Army|United States}}
| serviceyears = 1846–48
| rank = 15px Lieutenant colonel
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| battles = Mexican-American War
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Alexander Keith McClung (June 14, 1811{{snd}}March 23, 1855) was an attorney from Vicksburg, Mississippi, U.S. marshal for the Northern District of Mississippi, a leading officer of the Mississippi Rifles during the Mexican-American War, and briefly chargé d'affaires to Bolivia in President Zachary Taylor's administration. A dead shot with mental health problems, he is best known for his participation in a series of duels. He became a folkloric figure of the 19th-century antebellum United States, known as "the Black Knight of the South," with claims made to the effect that he killed 18 people, or participated in 14 duels and had killed 10 men, or killed seven brothers in one family. (The historical record suggests four duels with two killings, but A New History of Mississippi states that by the end of his term as U.S. marshal he "had probably killed 10 men.")
Born the seventh child of a Kentucky judge and legislator, and the "most brilliant" daughter of the Marshall political family, McClung moved to Mississippi in 1832, where he built a lonely, storied, troubled life; he considered himself "Death's Ramrod." Amongst his contemporaries, he was considered a courageous soldier, a passionate Whig (devoted to Henry Clay, and opposed to Andrew Jackson), an excellent writer, an excellent shot, sensitive, melancholic, Byronic, erratic, alcoholic, and eventually, insane. He died by self-inflicted gunshot in a Mississippi boarding house in 1855, leaving a Romantic poem as a suicide note.
Mississippi duels
File:McClung_and_Menefee_fought_with_rifles_(Orville_Carroll_illustration,_1942).jpg
McClung moved first to Columbus, in northeastern Mississippi, in about 1832. He began working as a "not too successful" attorney but regardless of his lawyering skill he still managed to move within the circle of the state's most prominent politicians.{{Sfnp|Mitchell|2014|p=141}} Moving further south in 1833, in short order he served as "second" to Henry S. Foote in a duel with Sergeant S. Prentiss. At this duel, one of the typically baroque Southern duel cycles of gossip, rumor, slander, and melodrama was kicked off, in this case involving one Gen. Allen and a man named George W. Coffee.{{Sfnp|Prichard|2008|p=29}} Thus, on July 14, 1834, McClung dueled and killed Mississippi state legislator Augustus Albert Allen.{{Cite news |date=1855-03-27 |title=Story of a Brave Man |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-times-story-of-a-brave-man/164425680/ |access-date=2025-02-01 |work=The New York Times |pages=4}}{{Sfnp|Prichard|2008|p=29}} The duel was on the banks of the Pearl River, and McClung shot Allen in the mouth from {{Convert|34|ft}}.{{Sfnp|Prichard|2008|p=29}} McClung's shot amputated Allen's tongue and smashed "several teeth...leaving a horrific wound from which he died in great agony."{{Sfnp|Prichard|2008|p=29}} As many as 3,000 people were present at the Jackson duelling grounds to witness this event.{{Cite news |date=1877-03-23 |title=The Code in '36 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/savannah-reporter-the-code-in-36/164430933/ |access-date=2025-02-01 |work=Savannah Reporter |pages=3}}
In 1837 there was supposed to be a fight between McClung and H. C. Stewart, with the weapons being {{Convert|16|in|cm|abbr=on}} knives but McClung "absolutely refused to agree to the binding of their respective left arms with cords. Gentlemen, he contended, did not bind themselves like slaves and criminals. While the duel never took place, the barbaric terms were circulated in the Northern press as yet another example of Southern savagery."{{Sfnp|Prichard|2008|p=29}}
McClung killed 24-year-old John L. Menefee in 1838.{{Cite news |date=1839-02-11 |title=Vicksburg Whig |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-national-intelligencer-and-washing/164468411/ |access-date=2025-02-01 |work=Daily National Intelligencer and Washington Express |pages=3}} Menefee's first name is variously listed as George, James, and John W., and the family spelling was Menefee although the press generally used Menifee.{{Sfnp|Prichard|2008|p=30}}{{Cite news |date=1838-12-31 |title=Duel Opposite Vicksburg |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-semi-weekly-mississippi-free-trader/164426206/ |access-date=2025-02-01 |work=The Semi-Weekly Mississippi Free Trader |pages=2}}{{Cite news |date=1909-09-05 |title=The Day of the Duel |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/lexington-herald-leader-the-day-of-the-d/164467577/ |access-date=2025-02-01 |work=Lexington Herald-Leader |pages=22}} He was a Vicksburg merchant,{{Sfnp|Prichard|2008|p=30}} and he was the brother of Kentucky congressman Richard H. Menefee, and he was killed on "the second fire" of a duel with Mississippi rifles in Vicksburg in December 1838. The lead-up to the Menefee shooting involved Menefee and George Coffee ("McClung's old enemy") finding the completely inebriated McClung alone and unarmed in a tavern and "savagely beating" him with a pool cue to the point that they fractured his skull. This action led to the duel.{{Sfnp|Prichard|2008|p=30}} As many as 700 people had ridden over to DeSoto Island, the "duelling island" across from Vicksburg, in boats to witness the shootout.{{Cite web |last=Presson |first=Tommy |date=2020-02-26 |title=The dueling Black Knight |url=https://vicksburgnews.com/the-dueling-black-knight/ |access-date=2025-02-01 |website=Vicksburg Daily News |language=en-US}} Menefee was not killed directly by a bullet, but rather McClung's bullet hit the body of Menefee's gun and either a fragment of the hammer or half of the bullet entered above his right eye,{{Cite news |date=1839-01-25 |title=The Vicksburg Duel |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/alexandria-gazette-the-vicksburg-duel/164468068/ |access-date=2025-02-01 |work=Alexandria Gazette |pages=2}} or he was killed when a wooden splinter of the rifle stock cut through his neck. The crowd was against McClung, as Menefee was personally popular, and "the callous sporting crowd had reportedly bet heavily against McClung," since Menefee was a member of the local militia and was known for his excellent shooting skills.{{Sfnp|Prichard|2008|p=30}} Menefee's unit, the Vicksburg Rifles, had all come to the dueling grounds to have a picnic and watch.{{sfnp|McClung|1904|p=93}} Nearly 50 years later, in 1886, Menefee was still remembered by a Vicksburg booster as "one of the most brilliant and popular men in the State."{{Cite news |date=1886-12-16 |title=Vicksburg: Its Past Present and Future |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-vicksburg-post-vicksburg-its-past-p/160830948/ |access-date=2024-12-13 |work=The Vicksburg Post |pages=6}}
After Menefee's death, other Menefees reportedly sought out McClung and he "fought seven of them killing three of the number and wounding the balance."{{sfnp|McClung|1904|p=95}} Another version has it that, "As an aftermath, he was forced to methodically slay all six of his victim's brothers, one by one, in the order which they challenged him. One perfectly good family, 'shot to hell'{{Mdash}}literally." The McClung family history claimed that his "formidable reputation saved him from ever again being challenged.{{sfnp|McClung|1904|p=95}} Another account, spun one hundred years after McClung's death, claimed that he killed 18 men, including some conniving gamblers killed in partnership with Jim Bowie in a brawl on the deck of a steamboat, and that the names of 18 victims "are known" (but this account does not name them).{{Cite news |date=1955-04-10 |title=Known To Have Killed 18 Men (Part 2 of 3) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/clarion-ledger-known-to-have-killed-18-m/164490352/ |access-date=2025-02-02 |work=Clarion-Ledger |pages=7}} His reputed double-digit kill count is possibly predominantly folkloric and not factual, as there is no secondary evidence of McClung killing a succession of Menefees in the wake of their brother's death, etc., but such statements cling to McClung's reputation nonetheless.{{Sfnp|Prichard|2008|p=30}}
Politics and the Mexican War
McClung was noted for his attacks on the Martin Van Buren presidential administration of 1836 to 1840.{{Cite news |date=1888-01-26 |title=A Dead Shot |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-coronado-chronicle-a-dead-shot/164497507/ |access-date=2025-02-02 |work=The Coronado Chronicle |pages=3}} McClung was named editor of the Southern Sun newspaper in 1840.{{Cite news |date=1840-02-05 |title=The Southern Sun |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-weekly-natchez-courier-the-southern/164496644/ |access-date=2025-02-02 |work=The Weekly Natchez Courier |pages=4}} From 1841 to 1845, McClung was U.S. marshal for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.{{Cite news |date=1845-03-20 |title=Appointments by the President |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-baltimore-sun-appointments-by-the-pr/164426429/ |access-date=2025-02-01 |work=The Baltimore Sun |pages=4}} During this period there are hints of a failed courtship of Virginia Caroline Tunstall, later Mrs. Clement Claiborne Clay. They met in Columbus while she was visiting an aunt, Mrs. Fort. She reportedly said that she both loved him and feared him, and he was prone to stunts like threatening to drive their carriage into the river unless she agreed to marry him.{{Cite news |date=1971-01-03 |title=No Magnolias |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-birmingham-news-no-magnolias/164497889/ |access-date=2025-02-02 |work=The Birmingham News |pages=144}} She said yes, made him drive her home, told him the next day that her "yes" was made under duress, and "fearful...fled by stagecoach to Tuscaloosa," and never saw him again, marrying Clay shortly thereafter.{{Cite news |date=1971-01-03 |title=For this belle |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-birmingham-news-for-this-belle/164498071/ |access-date=2025-02-02 |work=The Birmingham News |pages=145}} McClung ran The True Issue newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi in 1844. The following year, he "stumped Lowndes County" for a seat in the Mississippi House of Representatives and lost the election but "established his reputation as a skilled, dramatic orator."{{Sfnp|Prichard|2008|p=30}}
McClung served as lieutenant colonel of the 1st Mississippi Regiment during the Mexican–American War.{{Cite news |date=1847-06-15 |title=McClung |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/natchez-democrat-mcclung/164424739/ |access-date=2025-02-01 |work=Natchez Democrat |pages=2}} Originally Captain of the Tombigbee Volunteers, which was named for the Tombigbee River, the company was organized at Columbus, Mississippi, and included soldiers recruited from Monroe and Lowdnes Counties.{{Cite news |date=1903-02-19 |title=A Valuable Flag Found |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/clarion-ledger-a-valuable-flag-found/164466840/ |access-date=2025-02-01 |work=Clarion-Ledger |pages=5}} He was promoted to lieutenant colonel, second in command of the regiment, and was wounded at the "storming of Monterrey."{{Cite news |date=1855-03-27 |title=Death of Col. Alexander K. McClung |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/semi-weekly-mississippian-death-of-col/164425390/ |access-date=2025-02-01 |work=Semi-Weekly Mississippian |pages=2}} McClung was said to be the first man over the wall at the Black Fort (La Teneria), and he was assaulting the second Mexican defensive line when his left hand was shattered and left hip struck by an enemy minié ball.{{Sfnp|Prichard|2008|p=30}} In 1847, citizens of Columbus presented McClung with a ceremonial sword inscribed "'Presented to Lieut. Col. Alex'r. McClung, by the citizens of Lowndes County, Miss., for his gallantry at the battle of Monterey.' On the sword are the words uttered by the gallant Colonel, when making his charge on the Mexican defences, 'Tombigbee Volunteers, follow me.'"{{Cite news |date=1847-04-01 |title=Sword to Col. McClung |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-semi-weekly-mississippi-free-trader/164497006/ |access-date=2025-02-02 |work=The Semi-Weekly Mississippi Free Trader |pages=1}} As of 1904 the sword was in the possession of Mrs. Harrison T. McClung of St. Paul, Minnesota.{{sfnp|McClung|1904|p=95}}
McClung was announced as a candidate for the U.S. Congress from Mississippi in 1847. Both Jefferson Davis and McClung ran for office late year, based on their records in the war, and squabbled in print over who took what actions in combat.{{Sfnp|Prichard|2008|p=30}} Davis, a Democrat, was sent up to the U.S. Senate.{{Sfnp|Prichard|2008|p=30}} McClung, a Whig, failed to win to a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives,{{Sfnp|Prichard|2008|p=30}} losing his race to Winfield Scott Featherston, a Democrat and fellow veteran of the Mexican-American War.{{Cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/clarion-ledger-black-knight-of-the-south/164482761/|title=Black Knight of the South: McClung Meets His Own Fate (Part 3 of 3) by Joe Penix|date=April 17, 1955|pages=3|via=newspapers.com}} In 1848 the Mississippi Free Trader criticized McClung's stump speaking style as mediocre.{{Cite news |date=1848-10-04 |title=Chalmers & McClung |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/mississippi-free-trader-chalmers-mcclu/164425025/ |access-date=2025-02-01 |work=Mississippi Free Trader |pages=1}} His writing, however, was said to be superlative. McClung supported Zachary Taylor for president in 1848 and as a reward was granted the "scantest crumbs of political patronage{{mdash}}the post of charges d'affaires to Bolivia. Many of his friends advised him to refuse the position. McClung, who was in dire financial straits, swallowed his pride and accepted the mission on May 29, 1849."{{Sfnp|Prichard|2008|p=31}}{{cite web |url= https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/mcclung-alexander-keith |title= Alexander Keith McClung (1812–1855) |publisher= Office of the Historian |location= U.S. Department of State |accessdate= 3 June 2012}} In 1851 he apparently insulted the Bolivian foreign minister and essentially recalled himself to the United States.{{Sfnp|Prichard|2008|p=30}} While in Bolivia he may have killed "an overbearing Englishman."{{Sfnp|Paxton|1885|p=177}} However, this claim "is by others denied," and New History of Mississippi deems it "rumor."{{sfnp|McClung|1904|p=96}}{{Sfnp|Mitchell|2014|p=142}}
Decline and death
Back in Mississippi, he was a vigorous campaigner for pro-Union candidates and against the possibility of secession from the United States over the issue of slavery, supporting his old ally Foote in an election against Jefferson Davis. Many decades later, a trio of old Confederates claimed that McClung and Davis despised each other, and Davis would deliberately needle McClung, hoping to prompt a duel challenge in which Davis would have chosen the weapons, and selected sabers, at which he was the superior fighter. (No challenge to Davis was ever sent by McClung.){{Cite news |date=1929-10-20 |title=McClung Hated, Feared Jefferson Davis, Trio of Veterans Declare |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/clarion-ledger-mcclung-hated-feared-jef/164466041/ |access-date=2025-02-01 |work=Clarion-Ledger |pages=18}} In 1852 he was nominated, along with S. S. Boyd of Adams County, to serve as a Whig presidential elector,{{Cite news |date=1852-05-19 |title=Mississippi Whig Convention and Internal Improvements - 1852 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/georgia-journal-and-messenger-mississipp/153503602/ |access-date=2025-02-02 |work=Georgia Journal and Messenger |pages=2}} but refused to serve because he did not support Winfield Scott.{{Cite news |date=1852-08-28 |title=Col. McClung and Judge Boyd, White House Politics |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-north-carolinian-col-mcclung-and-ju/164431230/ |access-date=2025-02-01 |work=The North-Carolinian |pages=2}}
He was, however, notorious by this time for his bad credit, gambling, and drunkenness, had no remaining legal career to speak of, and had accumulated significant debts.{{Sfnp|Prichard|2008|p=31}} On October 11, 1852, McClung delivered a eulogy for Henry Clay that was described as one of the greatest speeches ever made in Mississippi{{Mdash}}despite McClung having been in what was called a "beastly state of intoxication" the night before.{{Sfnp|Prichard|2008|p=32}} According to local residents, by the 1850s McClung had become a hopeless alcoholic and would fall asleep on emptied shipping crates stacked behind shops in the Mississippi state capital of Jackson, unconscious yet clutching a Bowie knife in his hand.{{Cite news |date=1929-10-06 |title=Black Knight and His Weapon |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/clarion-ledger-black-knight-and-his-weap/164471060/ |access-date=2025-02-01 |work=Clarion-Ledger |pages=17}} According to Mrs. Sidney Stevens of Jackson, Mississippi in 1929, "Most of McClung's quarrels and debauches either occurred or originated in the saloon...on the corner of East Capitol and North State street, across the street from the Old Capitol. That was a favorite hangout for him." Reuben Davis recalled in his memoirs the terror of entering a restaurant with two friends and coming across McClung drinking alone but for the company of two guns and a knife laid out in front of him on the bar; Davis described McClung as "insane" by that time, prone to an alcohol-fueled psychosis and erratic, frightening words and actions.{{Sfnp|Prichard|2008|p=31}} Davis and companions were fearful that a hasty exit would "insult" McClung, so they ordered and then consumed their white wine and oysters as quickly as possible, leaving the equally terrified (enslaved) waiter alone with McClung.{{Sfnp|Prichard|2008|p=31}}
In 1855, McClung sought a new military officer's commission but, with his reputation in tatters, and his old rival Jefferson Davis running the U.S. Department of War under Franklin Pierce, none was forthcoming.{{Sfnp|Prichard|2008|p=31}}
McClung used "a tiny, silver-mounted derringer" to commit suicide by self-inflicted gunshot in the Eagle Hotel in Jackson, Mississippi. According to Kentucky archivist and historian James M. Prichard, his planning for this event was elaborate: "He had previously asked a local carpenter to design a wooden plank with a deep notch in one end. After positioning the plank against his bed, he lay down so that his head rested in the v-shaped notch. He placed a small silver derringer against his head and pulled the trigger. The blood ran down the board so that not a single drop stained his fine clothes. Near his body lay a bit of melancholy verse entitled 'Ode to Death.'"{{Sfnp|Prichard|2008|p=31}} McClung was interred in the burial plot of Nicholas D. Coleman, widower of his cousin, Lucy Ambler Marshall Coleman,{{Sfnp|Paxton|1885|p=130}} at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Vicksburg, Warren County, Mississippi.[http://www.vicksburg.org/index.php/tombstone-database-search/9426 Cedar Hill Cemetery tombstone database (McClung, Col. Alexander K.)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151211073720/http://www.vicksburg.org/index.php/tombstone-database-search/9426 |date=11 December 2015 }}. Retrieved 2015-08-21.
Legacy
File:Ode to Death suicide poem by Alexander K. McClung.jpg
McClung lived at the intersection of an "elite male honor code" and a "poorly developed legal system" that "harbored some disturbed individuals."{{Sfnp|Mitchell|2014|p=141}} McClung's remarkable, troubled life and ultimate death by his own hand may have stemmed in part from a family history of untreated mood disorders and substance abuse. McClung's sister Charlotte McClung Woolfolk was remembered as a brilliant woman of "idiosyncrasies," who was possessed of a "delicate, quick and sensitive intuition, manifesting itself in prevision, bordering on prophesy,"{{Sfnp|Paxton|1885|p=170}} and who was "quite mad at the time of her early death in 1840."{{Sfnp|Prichard|2008|p=28}} McClung's brother Rev. John A. McClung's death at Niagara Falls in 1859 was most likely a suicide.{{Sfnp|Prichard|2008|p=28}} McClung's cousin, Thomas F. Marshall, also a duellist, drank himself to death in 1864.{{Sfnp|Prichard|2008|p=31}} McClung's mother outlived her son by three years; in 1885, a nephew wrote of her, "Aunt McClung was, perhaps, the most intellectual of the daughters of Col. Thos. Marshall. Her mind possessed masculine powers, and she delighted to associate with people of culture. She combined intelligence with sweetness of temper, purity of thought and tenderness of heart. In the days of my childhood and orphanage, she was a mother to me. I delighted to read to her, and hear her comments. She was dignified and imposing in her manner; yet everybody loved her. Her reading was extensive, her information varied, and her conversation exceedingly interesting. When, in 1831 and 1832, I lived at the old haunted Orr mansion, perched on the Ohio bluff, with its solitary halls, lofty ceilings, and spacious corridors, she kindly took me to her room of nights, to allay my boyish fears of ghosts. In her long widowhood of 47 years, she was a welcome and honored visitor among her kindred."{{Sfnp|Paxton|1885|p=74}}
Alexander McClung never married but according to a 1948 article in a Mississippi paper, "For many years the name McClung became an alibi for the spinsters of Columbus, who nimbly excused their single blessedness by remarking, 'You must realize, my dear, the reason I never married is because I loved Alexander McClung.'"{{Cite news |date=1948-04-25 |title=Fading Painting Recalls Hectic, Glamorous Years of Alexander McClung |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-commercial-appeal-fading-painting-re/164495867/ |access-date=2025-02-02 |work=The Commercial Appeal |pages=60}}
The nickname Black Knight of the South seems to have been developed posthumously, and may have been popularized by the title of a 1936 article by Craddock Goins in Esquire magazine.{{Cite web |last=Goins |first=Craddock |date=April 1936 |title=Black Knight of the South |url=https://classic.esquire.com/article/1936/04/01/black-knight-of-the-south |access-date=2025-02-02 |website=Esquire Complete Archive |pages=68–69 |language=en-US}} {{Subscription required}} McClung reportedly referred to himself in letters as "Death's Ramrod."{{Cite news |date=1955-04-03 |title=McClung -- Death's Ramrod (Part 1 of 3) by Joe Penix |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/185645916/?fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjE4NTY0NTkxNiwiaWF0IjoxNzM4NDUzOTAzLCJleHAiOjE3Mzg1NDAzMDN9.UDWHCfdaxUwnThfurt0wbweW8ldwG6N6H5VJyHowFYE&clipping_id=164483795 |access-date=2025-02-01 |work=Clarion-Ledger |pages=10}} Regarding the longevity and persistence of McClung's legend, one Mississippi narrative about his life and death seemed to him imbue him with all of the original sins of the antebellum Southern white man: "Highly bred like the thoroughbred horses of his boyhood home, sensitive, intelligent, quick-tempered, ambitious, combatative and frustrated, Keith McClung grew up to acquire most of the virtues and nearly all the vices of the traditional Southern gentleman of his day. He was controversial and vain, with an exaggerated sense of chivalry and an adolescent motion the he must prove himself in the world by fighting continually." His well-known rivalry with Confederate President Jefferson Davis may have also contributed to the construction of his reputation in the Lost Cause-venerating post-war white South. The McClung family historian deemed him a victim of his time, writing, "Adherence to the false 'code of honor' which prevailed in his day was deemed more essential than brains and moral character for one who sought political preferment. McClung possessed a temperament which made him an easy victim of this heathenish and barbarous code."{{sfnp|McClung|1904|p=97}}
See also
References
{{reflist}}
Sources
{{refbegin|indent=yes}}
- {{cite book |title=A New History of Mississippi |last=Mitchell |first=Dennis J. |year=2014 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |location=Jackson |isbn=9781626740198 |id={{Project MUSE|33980|type=book}} |oclc=863127649 |lccn=2013044104 }}
- {{Cite book | last=McClung | year=1904| first=William | url=https://archive.org/details/mcclunggenealog00mcclgoog | title=The McClung Genealogy | publisher=McClung Publishing Company | location=Pittsburgh | oclc=5148800 |id=FHL 50350}}
- {{Cite book | last=Paxton | first=William | year=1885 | url=https://archive.org/details/marshallfamilyo00paxtgoog | title=The Marshall Family | publisher=Robert Clark and Company | location=Cincinnati, OH | oclc=000000}}
- {{cite magazine |url=https://www.kyhumanities.org/assets/files/Page-Editor-Files/Past_issue_pdf3.pdf |magazine=Kentucky Humanities |title=A Killing Gentleman |date=April 2008 |last=Prichard |first=Jim |pages=27–32 |issn=1554-6284 }}
{{refend}}
External links
- [http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/mccloskey-mcclung.html#909.01.60 Alexander Keith McClung entry] at The Political Graveyard
- {{find a Grave|16219512}} (born 1811) and also [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19036206 here] (born 1809)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:McClung, Alexander Keith}}
Category:19th-century American diplomats
Category:19th-century American lawyers
Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Bolivia
Category:American military personnel of the Mexican–American War
Category:Marshall family (politics)
Category:People from Fauquier County, Virginia
Category:People from Jackson, Mississippi
Category:Suicides in Mississippi