★ ★ Clay, Cassius M.

Cassius Marcellus Clay
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Born: October 19, 1810

Birthplace: Madison County, Kentucky

Father: Green Clay 1757 – 1828

(Buried: Green Clay Cemetery, Richmond, Kentucky)​

Mother: Sally Lewis 1776 – 1867

(Buried: Richmond Cemetery, Richmond, Kentucky)​

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Brother: U.S. Rep. Brutus Junius Clay of KY 1808-1878
(Buried: Auvergne Cemetery, Paris, Kentucky)

1st​ Wife: Mary Jane Warfield 1815 – 1900

(Buried: Lexington Cemetery, Lexington, Kentucky)​

2nd​ Wife: Dora Richardson 1880 – 1914

(Buried: Midway Cemetery, Midway, Kentucky)​

Children:

Elisha Warfield Clay 1835 – 1851​

(Buried: Lexington Cemetery, Lexington, Kentucky)​

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Major Green Clay 1837 – 1883​

(Buried: Richmond Cemetery, Richmond, Kentucky)​

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Mary Barr Clay 1839 – 1924​

(Buried: Lexington Cemetery, Lexington, Kentucky)​

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Sarah Lewis "Sally" Clay Bennett 1841 – 1935​

(Buried: Richmond Cemetery, Richmond, Kentucky)​

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Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. 1843 – 1843​

(Buried: Lexington Cemetery, Lexington, Kentucky)​

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Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. 1845 – 1857​

(Buried: Lexington Cemetery, Lexington, Kentucky)​

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Brutus Junius Clay 1847 – 1932

(Buried: Richmond Cemetery, Richmond, Kentucky)​

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Laura Clay 1849 – 1941​

(Buried: Lexington Cemetery, Lexington, Kentucky)​

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Flora Clay 1851 – 1851​

(Buried: Lexington Cemetery, Lexington, Kentucky)​

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Anne Clay Crenshaw 1859 – 1945​

(Buried: Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia)​

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Leonide Henry "Launey" Clay 1866 – 1933​

(Buried: Tod Homestead, Youngstown, Ohio)​

Education:

Attended Transylvania University​

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1832: Graduated from Yale College​

Occupation before War:

Member of the Anti-Slavery Movement​

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1835 – 1841: Kentucky State Representative​

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1843: Survived assassination attempt by Sam Brown​

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Fought Sam Brown with a Bowie Knife​

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Publisher of True American Newspaper ​

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Mob of 60 Broke into printing office, robbing his printing equipment​

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Reset up his Newspaper in Cincinnati, Ohio​

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1846 – 1847: Served in Mexican-American War as Captain​

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1849: Attacked by six Turner Brothers, he fought back with his knife​

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1853: Granted 10 acres of land, founding the town of Berea, Kentucky​

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1855: Founder of Free Founded Berea College in Berea, Kentucky​

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Founder of the Republican Party in Kentucky​

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1860: Supporter of Abraham Lincoln for the President Campaign​

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1860: Candidate for Republican Party Vice-Presidential Nomination

Civil War Career:

1861 – 1862: United States Minister to Russia​

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1862 – 1863: Major General in the Union Army​

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1863: Resigned as Major General in Union Army​

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1863 – 1869: United States Minister to Russia​

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Helped with the negotiations for the Purchase of Alaska​

Occupation after War:

1863 – 1869: United States Minister to Russia​

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Founder of Cuban Charitable Aid Society​

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Advocate for the nationalization of Railroads​

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1869: Left his support of the Republican Political Party​

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1872: One of the organizers of the Liberal Republican Party​

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1872: Helped secure the Nomination for Horace Greeley​

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1876: Supporter of Samuel J. Tilden for President Campaign​

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1878: Divorced his wife after 45 years of marriage​

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1880: Supporter of Winfield S. Hancock for President Campaign​

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1884: Rejoined the Republican Political Party​

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1884: Supporter of James G Blaine for President Campaign

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Known to have carried two pistols and a Bowie knife for protection​

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Installed a cannon to protect his home and office​

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1890: President of Kentucky State Constitutional Convention​

Died: July 22, 1903

Place of Death: White Hall, Richmond, Kentucky

Cause of Death: General exhaustion

Age at time of Death: 92 years old

Burial Place: Richmond Cemetery, Richmond, Kentucky

 

[donna]

His home, White Hall is well worth a visit if you are in the area.

 

[Pollaco]

His home, White Hall is well worth a visit if you are in the area.

His home was guarded by a cannon in his final years, he had become paranoid and was labeled a lunatic by the courts.

 

[Pollaco]

In the early stages of the War, before Bull Run, Washington DC was guarded by several "regiments". One was Senator James Lanes group of volunteers the other was Clay's unit. I think they called themselves the Clay Battalion Washington Guards. I think there are pictures of them camping on the Capitol grounds.

 

[Pollaco]

His resignation came because he refused to serve when Union forces were protecting slavery in occupied parts of the South. He truly hated slavery and resigned his generalcy on March 11, 1863.

 

[James N.]

His resignation came because he refused to serve when Union forces were protecting slavery in occupied parts of the South. He truly hated slavery and resigned his generalcy on March 11, 1863.

He also had been treated somewhat oddly and shabbily by former USN officer Maj. Gen. William "Bull" Nelson during the opening phases of the Perryville Campaign in August, 1862. Nelson had been sent by D. C. Buell to take charge and organize a defense of the state under immediate threat of invasion. When he traveled form the capital in Lexington to Richmond he found Clay with a militia force guarding an easily defended ford and bluff near his estate, Nelson removed him from his command giving it to a subordinate and very unwisely advancing the whole to Richmond where it was soon defeated and routed by Kirby Smith's Confederates. In that case at least it seems militia general Clay had the better plan!

 

[gentlemanrob]

Happy Birthday Major General Cassius M. Clay! Salutes remembering General Clay on his birthday.

 

[DixieRifles]

Brutus Junius Clay 1847 – 1932

Interesting. The same name as John Wilkes Booth's father and brother, except reverse order.

 

[Pollaco]

Clay was cousins to both Henry Clay and Clement C. Clay, governor of Alabama. This Clement C. Clay was Clement Comer Clay not to be confused with Clement Claiborne Clay who was a Confederate Senator, also from Alabama.Though a little research might also put Clement Claiborne Clay in the family tree as well.

 

[Pollaco]

Clay was cousins to both Henry Clay and Clement C. Clay, governor of Alabama. This Clement C. Clay was Clement Comer Clay not to be confused with Clement Claiborne Clay who was a Confederate Senator, also from Alabama.Though a little research might also put Clement Claiborne Clay in the family tree as well.

Actually I guess Clement Claiborne Clay was a cousin as well as He was the son of Governor Clement Comer Clay.

 

[USS ALASKA]

Anniversary Bump

Birthday

19 Oct 1810

Cassius Marcellus Clay (d.1903), Major General (Union volunteers), was born. Cassius Marcellus Clay was born on his father's plantation, Clermont, in Madison County, Kentucky, the son of Revolutionary War veteran General Green Clay and Sally Lewis. Clay fought for the abolishment of slavery, becoming one of Kentucky's greatest anti-slavery crusaders in the years before the Civil War. While attending Yale University, Clay had been deeply influenced by a pro-emancipation speech of William Lloyd Garrison. Clay became one of the most prominent American abolitionists and statesmen, and was a proponent of Henry Clay's American System. He rejected extreme measures pertaining to slavery and advocated gradual emancipation. In 1845 he founded a leading anti-slavery newspaper the True American, an anti-slavery weekly. When his printing equipment was seized by local opposition, he continued to publish the paper from Cincinnati, Ohio. Later, changing its name to the Examiner, he moved the operation to Louisville, Kentucky. Clay served three terms in the Kentucky Legislature, from 1835-1840. He helped found the Republican Party in 1854, and gave his support to its' Presidential tickets in 1856 and 1860. He was named Minister Plenipotentiary to Russia in 1861, during the Lincoln Administration, returning home for a brief period when he received a commission from the Lincoln Administration to serve as a Major General for the Union Army. Clay returned to St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1863, to continue his diplomatic service as Minister to Russia until 1869. In his late years, he wrote an autobiography: The Life of Cassius Marcellus Clay: Memoirs, Writings, and Speeches. As health failed due to advancing age, Clay confined himself more and more to his estate, White Hall, the remodeled estate built upon the original estate house structure of Clermont. Cassius Marcellus Clay died July 22, 1903, in the older section of the house, where he had been born ninety-three years earlier.

October 19

19 October 1739 – England declared war on Spain over borderlines in Florida. The War is known as the War of Jenkins’ Ear because a Member of Parliament waved a dried ear and demanded revenge …

thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com

CASSIUS M. CLAY'S MISSION TO RUSSIA: 1861-1862; 1863-1869
FLORENCE BANGERT PATTOCK
University of Minnesota Graduate School

"Great events are in the future in connection with China, Japan, and India. Nature has placed us in a position of mastery of the
situation. It will be our fault if we come not up to our possible destiny."---Clay to Seward, 17 September, 1868

Lincoln's chief objective in the Civil War was to preserve the Union-- with or without slavery. His grand strategy in foreign policy was to prevent the intervention of foreign countries on behalf of the Confederacy, and at the same time to cultivate any countries which might be sympathetic to the Union. Lincoln selected two Americans to two key diplomatic posts to help carry out this over-all strategy: Charles Francis Adams for the Court of St. James, and Cassius Marcellus Clay for the Court of the Tsars.

Full article here - https://filsonhistorical.org/wp-con...1-1862-1863-1869_Pattock-Florence-Bangert.pdf

Cheers,
USS ALASKA