KELLY, MICHAEL J. (?-1867). Michael J. Kelly, military officer, was born in Ireland. He was commissioned a second lieutenant of the First United States Cavalry from Washington, D.C., on May 8, 1861. During the Civil War he was promoted to brevet captain on December 31, 1862, for gallant and meritorious service at the battle of Stones River, Tennessee, and to brevet major on September 1, 1864, for similar conduct during the Atlanta campaign. He was assigned to Fort Chadbourne after the war and commanded a permanent camp on the Concho River until he became ill and died of typhoid fever on August 13, 1867. The permanent camp on the construction site of Fort Concho was named Camp Kelly in his honor for a time in 1868.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Evetts Haley, Fort Concho and the Texas Frontier (San Angelo Standard-Times, 1952). John P. Hatch, Subject Folder, Fort Concho National Historical Landmark Files, San Angelo. Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army (2 vols., Washington: GPO, 1903; rpt., Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1965). William H. Powell, List of Officers of the Army of the United States from 1779-1900 (New York: Hamersly, 1900).
