Clinton Clinebell was born around February 1841 in Greenbrier County, Virginia (now West Virginia), to David Clinebell and Susan Crist. His father fell gravely ill in 1848. “[A]nxious to be accepted to the church” before his death, David called the Rev. John McElhenny to his house on July 28. McElhenny examined and admitted David and Susan to the local Presbyterian Church and baptized four of their children, including Clinton. David never recovered, and he died around 1849. 

Clinton attended Loch Willow Academy in Augusta County, Virginia, where he studied under cartographer Jedediah Hotchkiss. He enrolled at the University of Virginia in 1860 to study Latin, Greek, and mathematics. During the secession crisis, he joined the Sons of Liberty, a pro-southern student military company. In April 1861, Virginia Governor John Letcher authorized Charlottesville’s volunteers to help capture the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry. UVA students greeted the news with “so much enthusiasm” that the faculty “deemed it inexpedient” to oppose them. They granted Clinebell and his peers a brief leave of absence to confront the “wicked Government at Washington.” Carrying muskets without ammunition, they boarded trains for Harpers Ferry, where they took part in what one student described as a “hard but bloodless campaign of ten days.” Clinebell withdrew from UVA on May 16, 1861.

Clinton's brother John enlisted in the Confederate army, taking part in the Battles of Lewisburg and White Sulphur Springs. Clinton, however, initially remained out of the war, instead working as a teacher. On January 30, 1864, he enlisted in the Union army and received a $60 bounty. Five days later, he was mustered in as a private in the 1st West Virginia Cavalry at Wheeling, West Virginia. On April 2, 1864, however, he allegedly deserted “to the enemy” at Martinsburg, West Virginia. 

In 1866, West Virginia lawyer Edward W. Andrews asked President Andrew Johnson to remove the charge of desertion from about 200 soldiers, including Clinebell. Andrews was running for Congress, and many of these soldiers resided in his district. Removing their charges would allow them to vote in the election. As Andrews explained, the “contest will, without doubt, be a very close one, and I feel well assured the restoration of these men will result in my election.” Johnson complied, clearing the soldiers of all “pains and penalties,” but the order came too late for them to vote in the election. The decision became a point of contention during Johnson’s impeachment trial in 1868.

Clinebell’s life after deserting is unclear. An alumni bulletin published in the early twentieth century lists him as killed in action, but his ultimate fate remains unknown.