Benjamin Franklin Kelley

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Benjamin Franklin Kelley (April 10, 1807 – July 16, 1891) was an American soldier who served as a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He played a prominent role in several military campaigns in West Virginia and Maryland.

Kelley was born in New Hampton, a small village in New Jersey. At the age of 19, he went to Wheeling, Virginia, a center of the slave trade. He engaged in the merchandise business until 1851, when he became a freight agent for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.

Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, he raised the 1st Virginia Infantry, a Federal volunteer three-months regiment, and was appointed as its colonel. His first service was at Philippi, where he captured the Confederate camp equipage and was himself badly wounded. He was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers in 1861 and was victorious at Romney and Blue's Gap. Afterward, Kelley commanded a division of 10,000 men in the Department of Harper's Ferry.

In 1862 he was serving under Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont, and the following year he was in command of the West Virginia department and pursued General Lee in 1863 following the Gettysburg Campaign. The following year, he checked the enemy at Folck's Mill, New Creek, and Moorefield, West Virginia. He was brevetted as a major general of volunteers on March 13, 1864.

Kelley, along with his immediate superior Maj. Gen. George Crook, was captured by a small raiding party of Confederate partisans on February 1, 1865. Kelley was sent to a prison in Richmond, Virginia, but he and Crook were released shortly thereafter by a special exchange. He resigned from the army on July 1, 1865.

After the war ended, Kelley was appointed an internal revenue collector in 1866. After serving in that role for ten years, he became the head of the Hot Springs, Arkansas, Military Reservation in 1876. In 1883, he became the Examiner of Pensions upon an appointment from President Arthur.

Kelley died in Oakland, Maryland, and was interred in Arlington National Cemetery. He is buried next to his wife, Mary Clare Bruce Kelley, who died on December 24, 1910.