Draft:Eli Brady Clemson

Eli Brady Clemson (c.1776 - 1846) was an officer (1799-1819) who served in the 1st Regiment of Infantry of the United States Army and later commissioned commandant of Fort Osage.

Clemson was the father of Henry A. Clemson who died at sea during the Mexican-American War.

Family life
Clemson was born c. 1776 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to the Quaker family, James Clemson II and Mary Halliday Clemson.

In 1811, Clemson married Ann Maria Oliver in New Brunswick, New Jersey. They had two children born in New Jersey: Julius (1816) and Henry (1818-1846); and three children born in Illinois: James Y (1821-1894), Fredrick and Mary Catherine (1830-1916). Ann Maria died in 1832.

Clemson married Esther Daniels Riddle, widow of Captain James Riddle, in 1836. They had two children: twins, Aaron B. and Theodosia B. (1838).

Military service
Clemson joined the army and was nominated as Ensign in the 1st Regiment of Infantry of the United States Army in March 1799.

In July 1799, Secretary of War, Alexander Hamilton, recommended that newly commissioned Second Lieutenant Clemson be assigned to recruit for the Army in Pennsylvania and Delaware. Clemson was promoted to first lieutenant in December 1800 by President John Adams. During these years, Clemson served in Washington City (now Washington, D. C.) in the same regiment as Meriwether Lewis, as well as Detroit.

In May 1807, Clemson was promoted to Captain by Henry Dearborn, Secretary of War, replacing Meriweather Lewis who resigned from the 1st Infantry. Clemson then recruited troops from Pennsylvania and New York, as well as a few French, Prussians and Irish in 1808. They first mustered at Pittsburgh, then ordered to Fort Belle Fontaine in what is now St. Louis County, Missouri.

In July 1808, Clemson and his troops were ordered to escort the new Factor (agent) George C. Sibley and six keelboats filled with goods and supplies to a site on the Missouri River identified previously by William Clark as a prime location for a factory fort (trading post). Since Clark had arrived a few months prior to Clemson, the area was initially known as Fort Clark. Upon arrival Clemson and his troops spent several months constructing the fort. When fortifications were completed in December 1808, Clemson renamed the fort to Fort Osage since the fort was initially established to provide supplies and protection to the Osage Nation. Although another account states Clark and Nathan Boone renamed the fort to Fort Osage.

In April 1810, Clemson signed the treaty with the Osage along with Pierre Chouteau (Indian agent), 1LT L. Lorimer, Reuben Lewis (Sub-agent of Indian Affairs), Grand Chief of the Big Osage Papuisea, Grand Chief of the Little Osage Nichu Malli and 99 little chiefs and warriors of both tribes.

Clemson was the commandant at Fort Osage until 1813, during which time he was commissioned to Major.

In a letter dated July 16th, 1812, to William Eustis, Secretary of War, Clemson detailed the use of Fort Osage since 1808. He particularly detailed the lack of use by the Osage of the previous 18 months due to attacks from hostile tribes. He then summed it up: "[t]hus we can with truth affirm that the Osages, for whom the establishment was originally intended, dare not visit it, nor to the best of our belief, will not, of course the object of the establishment is destroyed." He requested the fort be moved 115 miles downriver to the confluence of the Lamine River and the Missouri River, concluding that "[a]s a trading post with the Osage Indians it has every advantage over this [Fort Osage], being nearer to their Towns on the Osage river and their hunting ground great part of the year lying between the Lamine & Osage, they could at all times come from their Towns to that place without running that danger they are subject to in coming here." The letter was co-signed by LT. JNO. Brownson, Ensign L. Bissell and Surgeons Mate Jonathan Cool. Apparently the Secretary of War agreed and Fort Osage was evacuated June 1813.

Clemson then served as an inspector general for General Benjamin Howard for the U. S. forces west of the Mississippi River after the closing of Fort Osage.

Clemson was commissioned to lieutenant colonel in March 1814 and began actively recruiting for the Army.

In 1815, after the 1st Infantry was consolidated with four other Infantry regiments into the 3rd Infantry, Clemson was honorably discharged in June.

In a letter dated June 15, 1815, Clemson wrote "to the Officers of the Late Army of the United States" to petition the formation of a benelovent organization for the War of 1812 veterans. He proposed the name "Belisarian Association" after Belisarius, the military commander of the Byzantine Empire. He also proposed the association to be modeled after the Society of the Cincinnati which was formed for the military officers of the Continental Army. The association was never formalized. Clemson was recommissioned in the Army as Assistant Commissary of Issuances for the Army (1816-1819) at Fort Belle Fontaine. He found a "wretched state of the Store Houses" at the fort. After inventorying the fort, he sent an urgent request with an extensive list of basic supplies and uniforms needed to adequately support the troops. The request was not fulfilled. He resent the request in 1817 with an added note that these supplies and uniforms were needed for the next two and one-half years. His request still went unheeded even after repeated requests in 1818 and 1819.

Clemson retired from the miliary in 1819.

Civilian life
In 1807, Clemson served as justice of the peace for the township of St. Ferninand in the District of St. Louis.

In 1816, Clemson was elected to the Directors of the newly formed Bank of St. Louis in St. Louis, Missouri. He served at least two years as a Director.

Over the years he invested in real estate, owned transportation and merchantile businesses, farmed, served as postmaster and served as  court clerk in Missouri and Illinois.

At the time of Clemson's death in 1846 in Illinois, he was serving as a court clerk in Pulaski County, Illinois.

In memoriam
In 1812, the Missouri Rangers constructed a fort on Loutre Island in the Missouri River in honor of Clemson. James Callaway sent letters to his wife describing the fort as a “small crude fort with barracks.”

Notable relatives
Richard Milhous Nixon and Thomas Green Clemson are also descendants of the Clemson family of Pennsylvania.