Early Life Clements was born in January 1831 in Washington, D.C., and was the son of Eliza B. Clements (whose maiden name may have been Banks) and John Thomas Clements, a carpenter originally from Maryland. Little is known about his early life and education, but by 1850 he was a machinist living in Baltimore. By 1860 Clements had moved to the city of Norfolk, where he continued working as a machinist, and on August 15 of that year he married Margaret Catherine Jarvis. They had at least seven sons and five daughters, but six of their children did not live to adulthood. Clements remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War and may have been the same James Clements who served with the 2nd Dragoons of the regular army or the 1st Battalion, District of Columbia militia.