Joel B. Clough letters, 1863-1864

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Summary

Abstract:
Letters of American railroad engineer Joel B. Clough during the American Civil War.
Extent:
3.2 Linear Feet (2 boxes, 1 oversize folder)
Language:
Materials are in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Joel B. Clough letters, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

Letters from Joel B. Clough to his wife written between January 1863 and February 1864. The letters discuss operations of the Construction Corps in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania; Adna Anderson, Herman Haupt, and other staff of the Military Railroads and Construction Corps; Aquia Creek, Potomac Creek, Fredericksburg, and Alexandria camps, battles and skirmishes, including Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Bristoe Campaigns, Joseph Hooker, George G. Meade, and other commanding officers of the Army of the Potomac; political news, especially the Democratic Party. Clough also mentions the visit of Lincoln, Halleck, and Stanton to Aquia Creek on April 18, 1863. Also included is a copy of a photograph of J.B. Clough taken in the 1870s, and ephemera.

Biographical / historical:

Joel Barber Clough (1823-1887) was an American railroad engineer. Joel Clough (his middle name is sometimes spelled Barbour) was born in October 1823, in Palmer, Massachusetts. In December 1848, following his graduation from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, he entered railway service as a rodman of the engineering party of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad. Between 1849 and 1856, he was employed at the Vermont Valley, Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Painesville & Ashtabula railroads. In 1854, he moved to Macon, Mississippi, and then worked in Alabama and Tennessee for Edgefield & Kentucky and Nashville & Henderson Railroads. The beginning of the Civil War found him farming at Hopkins Station, near Minneapolis, Minnesota. According to the family record, he and his family left on the last available riverboat up the Mississippi before the outbreak of the war. In March of 1863, he became construction engineer of the Military Railroads of Virginia, a semi-independent unit that reported to the Secretary of War. Clough served under his old friend Adna Anderson (1827-1889), formerly chief engineer of Edgefield & Kentucky Railroad. Clough supervised construction works in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, on Aquia Creek, Potomac Creek Bridge, Bristoe Station, Cumberland Valley Railroad at Chambersburg, and Rappahannock Bridge. After the war, he worked for various Western railroads, including the Northern Pacific, and served as Minneapolis's City Engineer, from 1869 to 1870 and 1874 to 1875. From 1881 to 1887, Clough served, again under the supervision of Adna Anderson, as division engineer for the Northern Pacific Railroad, Yellowstone and Wisconsin Divisions. In 1887 he was employed as division engineer for Boulder Valley & Butte Railroad, Helena & Western, Helena, Boulder & Madison, and Helena Gallatin National Park Railroad. He died in August 1887 of pneumonia in Helena, Montana. Clough Junction, east of Helena is named after him. In 1854, he married Mary Anne Pierce. The couple had four children: Frank Pierce Clough, Mary Estella Clough, Ernest John Child Clough, and Florence Augusta Clough.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Luanne R. Abel Green and George F. Clough, October 2005.
Processing information:

Processed by Olga Tsapina in October 2006. In September 2023, Brooke M. Black created a finding aid.

Arrangement:

Organized in three series: 1. Letters; 2. Original portfolio; 3. Certificate.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.

Terms of access:

The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Joel B. Clough letters, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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