At the age of 14, Clell Miller joined Bloody Bill Anderson's guerrillas during the American Civil War. He was captured during the skirmish in which Anderson was killed on October 26, 1864. This was Miller's first and only wartime combat, and he was lucky not to have been executed by his captors. However, because of his youth, he was sent to St. Louis, Missouri at the Gratiot Street Prison. His father obtained his release in April 1865, perjuring himself by saying the family had always been Union supporters. Miller was described as being 5 feet 8 inches tall, with dark reddish auburn hair.
Outlaw career
The following James gang events were allegedly attributed to Miller:
June 3, 1871 - Ocobock Brothers' Bank at Corydon, Iowa. The Pinkerton Detective Agency was hired to pursue the gang and Miller was captured in July by a detective Westphal. He posted bail and was later acquitted after a long list of witnesses testified he was elsewhere at the time of the robbery. He was represented by attorney John McClanahan of Corydon, Iowa. A deposition from the trial is owned by the McClanahan family. Clell denied being in the James gang, but said later that he 'might as well join them because his reputation had been ruined by the trial'.
April 29, 1872 - Bank of Columbia at Columbia, Kentucky. Cashier R. A. C. Martin was killed and bystander James Garrett wounded.
May 27, 1873 - Ste. Genevieve Savings Bank at Ste. Genevieve, Missouri.
On September 7, 1876, Miller was shot and killed by townspeople in the robbery attempt on the First National Bank of Northfield, along with outlaw Bill Chadwell and bank cashier Joseph Lee Heywood and citizen Nicholas Gustavson. Wounded in the fight were Frank James, Charlie Pitts, Cole Younger, Jim Younger, Bob Younger and Northfield citizen Alonzo E. Bunker. Miller's body was photographed and then buried in Northfield. However, his father claimed the body and Miller was buried at Muddy Fork Cemetery in Kearney. Both of the bodies of Clell Miller and Bill Chadwell were exhumed the following night and were put into wooden barrels. The barrels were shipped to the medical school in Ann Arbor, Michigan on September 9, 1876 labelled as "Paint". The 22-year-old medical student, Henry M. Wheeler, used them as cadavers and displayed the skeleton of Clell Miller in his office in Grand Forks, North Dakota until his death.
Cultural depictions
Television and film depictions of Clell Miller include:
The Great Missouri Raid - portrayed by Guy Wilkerson
