Joel B. Clough letters: Finding Aid mssClough
Brooke M. Black
The Huntington Library
September 2023
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Business Number: (626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Joel B. Clough letters
Identifier/Call Number: mssClough
Physical Description:
3.2 Linear Feet
(2 boxes, 1 oversize folder)
Date (inclusive): 1863-1864
Abstract: Letters of American railroad engineer Joel B. Clough during the American Civil War.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
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[Identification of item]. Joel B. Clough letters, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Luanne R. Abel Green and George F. Clough, October 2005.
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.
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.
Processed by Olga Tsapina in October 2006. In September 2023, Brooke M. Black created a finding aid.
Organized in three series: 1. Letters; 2. Original portfolio; 3. Certificate.
Individual call numbers included in this collection: mssHM 69874-69935.
Joel B. Clough collection of United States military railroad photographs by Andrew J. Russell, photCL 301.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Bristoe Station, Battle of, Va., 1863 -- Personal narratives
Chancellorsville, Battle of, Chancellorsville, Va., 1863 -- Personal narratives
Gettysburg, Battle of, Gettysburg, Pa., 1863 -- Personal narratives
Military railroads -- United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Sources
Railroad engineers -- United States -- Correspondence
Railroads -- Virginia -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Sources
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Logistics -- Sources
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives
Virginia -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives
Letters (correspondence)
Photographs
Anderson, Adna, 1827-1889
Clough, Mary Annie Pierce, active 1854-1864
Haupt, Herman, 1817-1905
Hooker, Joseph, 1814-1879
Meade, George Gordon, 1815-1872
United States. Army. Military Railway Service -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
United States. Army of the Potomac
United States. War Department. Military Railroads