Edward Pickney Clark was born in Washington County, Virginia on November 4, 1827 to William and Nancy Wilson Clark. By 1836 both of his parents had died, and nine-year-old Clark went to live with his maternal grandfather James Wilson, though it is unclear whether he was taken in alone or with his four siblings.

Around the age of 21, Clark moved to Tennessee, and worked as a plasterer and brickmaker until purchasing a farm. He married Nancy Caroline McKenzie in August of 1852, and the couple had one son, William “Willie” Clark, before Nancy died in 1858. Clark married again in January 1860, to Mary Ann “Mollie” Bruner, and they had a further seven children. His youngest child and namesake Edward “Eddie” Clark was a receptionist for the Tennessee Valley Authority, living in Knoxville until his death in 1949.

Clark enlisted in Company B 59th Tennessee Infantry of the Confederate Army on May 1, 1862, leaving behind his wife and two young children on the family farm. He would be on the move throughout the Civil War, and his letters cover his time at Cumberland Gap in Tennessee before it was taken by the Union, and later into the long buildup of the Vicksburg campaign in Mississippi, though the letters end before the Union managed to gain control of the city. He was later wounded at Martinsburg, West Virginia and spent four months in the hospital at Charlottesville in Virginia. Martinsburg was a hotly contested strategic location during the Civil War, as the northern gateway to the Shenandoah Valley and a transportation hub.

By the time of the 1870 census, Clark was back to farming and growing his family. He remained in Madisonville in Monroe County, Tennessee for the rest of his life. Edward Pickney Clark died May 9, 1889, and is buried in Buckner Memorial Cemetery.