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. . . 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.