Mark Twain and the Confederacy

From The Collector:

Samuel Clemens was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri, a tiny village in the northern part of the state. His family moved from Tennessee before Samuel’s birth, and his father, John Marshall Clemens, soon relocated the family again to Hannibal, Missouri, on the Mississippi River. His father pursued several entrepreneurial ventures there, including shopkeeping and slave trading. These efforts failed, and the family relied on money sent home from Samuel’s older brother, Orion, who worked as a newspaper printer.

Samuel mirrored his brother’s career, leaving home in 1853 and finding employment as a typesetter in various cities. In 1854, Clemens joined a group armed to dispel rioters in St. Louis. Samuel’s band marched to the scene, but as they drew closer, he asked his friend to hold his musket while he fell out to get a drink. He did not return. This suggests a natural aversion to violence and a pretext for his wartime desertion. After forays across the country, he returned to Hannibal in 1857 and became a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi. This experience influenced his future pen name, “Mark Twain,” a call signifying the river was deep enough in that spot for safe passage. (Read more.)