Clifford Dowdey was born in Richmond, Virginia January 23, 1904 and died there May 30, 1979. The Richmond Newspapers, Times Dispatch & News Leader eulogized him as The Last Confederate. His father was descended from immigrants of County Galway, Ireland and his mother from an English settler of Jamestown. His father worked for Western Union and his mother was a housewife. Four of his grandmother’s brothers were Confederate soldiers. His grandmother lived with his family until she died when Dowdey was age 19. Her reminiscences spurred his lifelong interest in the American Civil War and the history of Virginia.

He attended Columbia University from 1921-1925. He worked for about a year as a newspaper reporter and book reviewer for the Richmond News Leader. He returned to New York City and worked as an editor for various pulp magazines (Munsey’s, Argosy and Dell) from 1926 to around 1935. About 1933 he started writing seriously on what eventually would become his first novel "Bugles blow no more.” Leaving the magazines, he and his wife moved to Florida for a season and then to Richmond, Virginia where he finished the novel. For the rest of his life, he lived in Richmond and worked as a writer of historical fiction and history. He reviewed others historical works in academic journals, such as "The Journal of Southern History" and " The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography." Even though he had no formal training as an historian several of his works received critical acclaim by noted historians. His historical novels were popular as evidenced by them being reviewed in "The New York Times."

The circumstance of his first marriage is unknown. In an interview published in The New York Times July 13, 1941, he made reference to a wife as early as 1934 or 35. On July 13, 1944, he married Frances Wilson, a clinical psychologist; she died July 1979. He was the father of two daughters Francis and Sarah.