Eighteenth governor of the State of Missouri, attorney, soldier, and politician. Jefferson County, Missouri, native. Son of Clement B. Fletcher and Margaret Byrd Fletcher. Married to Mary Clara Honey Fletcher in Jefferson County, Missouri, on April 16, 1851. Father of Edwin L. Fletcher and Ella F. Fletcher. Clerk of the Jefferson Circuit Court from 1849 to 1856. Admitted to the bar in 1857. Attorney in Jefferson County in 1860. Served in the 31st Missouri Volunteer Infantry Regiment (U.S.A.) as a colonel from October 7, 1862, to June 16, 1864. Captured at the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou, Warren County, Mississippi, on December 29, 1862. Prisoner of war at Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia, from March 23, 1863, to May 5, 1863. Served in the 47th Missouri Volunteer Infantry Regiment (U.S.A.) as a colonel from September 16, 1864, to November 18, 1864. Governor of the State of Missouri from January 2, 1865, to January 12, 1869.