In 1992 while attending Kansas University my cousin mailed a packet of information to me about my Kelly ancestors that lived in Fulton, Missouri. The information was sparse but the overall gist was my great-great-grandfathers served in an all Black regiment during the Civil War. It wouldn’t be until twenty years later that I pulled that packet from a memory box and began my search for more information. I wanted to confirm the legitimacy of the stories that were passed down as military documents were inadvertently thrown away. I began my search online and then visited the Missouri State Archives and was excited to find actual draft and enlistment papers on Isaac and Daniel Kelly: my 2 and 3X Great-grandfathers. This eventually led to my presentation sponsored by the State Archives with the Osage County Historical Society, A State Divided in 2014. National and State Archives have made it possibly for many families including mine to uncover and preserve this important part of our history.
Isaac Kelly was born about 1825 in Calloway, Missouri, the slave of Nancy Carson Kelly. Isaac Kelly had one son that I know of named Daniel Kelly born in 1840. They both were owned by Nancy and probably her first husband Larkin Carson. When Larkin Carson died in 1850, Nancy married John Kelly and their names might have changed at this point in time to “Kelly”.
News of the Emancipation Proclamation sent a rush of free Black men to enlist. In May of 1863 the Government established the Bureau of Colored Troops to manage the burgeoning numbers of Black soldiers. Daniel Kelly and his father Isaac traveled four hours and enlisted as a volunteers in U.S. Colored Troops 18th Infantry Regiment, Company K on Sept 21, 1864 in Bloomfield, Mo. The 18th regiment was active from September 28th to February 21st, 1866 and was mustered directly into US service instead of state. The troop was sent to Benton Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri known for being the largest training and deployment encampment. Sickness and disease was rampant at the camp. Lt. Col. William F. Fox, U.S.V. reported that for the 2nd Missouri Colored Infantry, “Over 100 men died at [Benton] Barracks before the regiment took the field, the men having been enlisted by the Provost-Marshals throughout the State and forwarded to this Post during an inclement season,– thinly clad, and many of them hatless, shoeless, and without food. Many suffered amputation of frozen feet or hands, and the diseases engendered by this exposure resulted in a terrible and unprecedented mortality”(Williams, 2005).
Daniel and Isaac suffered while waiting to be deployed. Daniel was listed as sick on his roll call at Benton Barracks in October and November 1864. When the troop was finally ordered to Nashville, Tennessee on November 7, Daniel remained sick in General Hospital No. 16 in Nashville. He was absent from duty from Dec 1864 through April 1865 returning for only two months of service. The 18thregiment occupied Nashville during Gen. Hood’s occupation in December and fought in the Battles of Nashville on December 15-28. Isaac would have likely seen battle as he was listed as present during this month. The troop was mustered out in February 1866. Sadly, Isaac Kelly died on April 27, 1865, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, of chronic rheumatism at the age of 40. Of 133 former Callaway Co slaves, more than a third died, mostly from disease. 13 were killed or mortally wounded in the battle of Nashville
Daniel and Isaac were slaves, owned by Nancy Kelly. She received $600 total for both men volunteering. The Act of Making Appropriations for Support of the Army of February 24, 1864 provided “that all able bodied colored persons between the ages of 20 and 45, resident of the United States, shall be enrolled in the provisions of this act. When a slave of a loyal master that shall be drafted and mustered into the service of the United States, his master shall have a certificate and thereupon such slave shall be free, and the bounty of $100 for each drafted man payable” (All Men are Brothers, 2013). The act provided a bounty of $300 for slaves that voluntarily enlisted in lieu of “loss of services”. Prior to this act there was no law that provided a bounty for free or colored men.
Daniel was honorably discharged from the US General Hospital in Nashville, Tenn. June 8, 1865. Isaac Kelly was also honorably discharged upon his death in the hospital. Both Daniel and Isaacs’s names appear on the African American Civil war museum in Washington D.C under plaque B-35. This monument is to preserve and tell the stories of the United States Colored Troops and African American involvement in the American Civil War.
Upon Nancy Kelly’s death, she wrote in her last will and testament that Daniel Kelly (of color) the rights to live on the piece of land he now on so long as he chooses rent-free. This is a rare find in a will of a white slave owner and also uncommon to allow a freed slave to live free on land. Nancy Kelly also gives another former slave Ben Kirby the same rights.
The Kelly family owned land in Fulton and also Kansas City, Ks. My great-grandmother Fannie Kelly Orme is the last relative to own original land stemming from her father, Daniel Kelly’s benevolent relationship with Nancy Kelly. I can only image the impression on their wives and family’s seeing Daniel come home. I assume that Daniel did not come home with a “blue suit” as this would have been preserved knowing the importance of earning freedom from his enlistment. However, the site had to have an effect on the entire community from which these once enslaved men had come. Daniel was able to return home to his wife and children and build a life in Fulton until his death in 1889. The importance of family, community and education was passed down through Isaac and Daniel. His daughter Fannie married and had 8 children, four of whom were first generation college graduates. Just two generations removed from slavery in a slave state. As some families struggle to uncover their history, the entire Kelly family can be proud of the detailed records that exist of the brave Kelly Soldiers.
Orme Genealogy and Consulting 