John and Kirby,
So, now you see why I am confused as to the true identity of the "Captain Kelly" who purchased the gunpowder and brought it to Jefferson City! The record got so muddled even back in the 1800's, as to which Kelly brought the powder to Jeff City. I had a crazy thought that perhaps one Captain Kelly bought and brought the powder to Jeff City in early 1861, while another Captain Kelly had the assignment of shipping the powder out of Jeff City in June 1861. However, that stretches credulity a bit further than I am willing to go.

I see in "Price's Lietenants" on page 179 that Captain E. V. Kelly, was actually Ephraim V. Kelly, prewar a merchant of St. Joseph, who commanded an artillery battery. Just to add to the confusion, I read someplace that influential southerners of St. Joseph arranged their own gunpowder purchase and when the Yanks got close, they also arranged to have it secreted all over the Buchanan and Platte County area. I wonder if I read that in Preston Filbert's "The Half Not Told," (publ. Stackpole in 2001), but I am not sure. I see in Bartel's "The Forgotten Men" on page 179 that Captain E. V. Kelly was born in Jessamine County, KY; commanded Kelly's Battery, 6th Division, Missouri State Guard; and that he served at the battles of Lexington and at Pea Ridge, and that immediately before Pea Ridge he tendered his resignation to General Price. It also says he was on his way home to St. Joseph when Union troops captured him on 15 April 1862.

Regarding Captain Joseph Kelly, I see in the Missouri State Archives and in "The Forgotten Men" that this was probably Captain Joseph M. Kelly; who prewar lived in St. Louis; and also had served in the British army prior to our Civil War. Joseph was in Kelly's Missouri Battery of artillery in the Confederate army, in which there was a Joseph and a James Kelly. I also found a military service record there for 22-year-old James Kelly of Kelly's Battery who was a Canadian-born carpenter who resided in Missouri. In "Price's Lieutenant's" I found a J. H. Kelly, and then in Bartels' "The Forgotten Men" she listed a James H. Kelly who was wounded at Wilson's Creek. Jim McGhee in his "Guide to Missouri Confederate Units" on page 124 has Joseph M. Kelly as inspector general for General Parsons, in which Kelly had the guts to go to Major or LTC Robert R. Lawther's battalion and challenge Lawther and his officers for refusing to allow Confederate recruiters to pick some of their men to be detailed into other units. Kelly had the nerve to arrest several of Lawther's officers for this refusal, and then had two other Missouri Confederate units brought to Lawther's camp and force the issue. You have to admire a man with the intestinal fortitude to pull that off!

John, what does the 1860 census for Joseph and James Kelly of St. Louis give for their places of birth?

Kirby, did Snead in his 1886 book "The Fight for Missouri" actually state that Captain E. V. Kelly, by name, was the MSG officer who went to St. Louis and bought the powder and brought 70 tons of it back to Jeff City? Also, did Webb in his "Battles and Biographies of Missourians" in 1900 actually name E. V. Kelly as being ordered to guard the gunpowder at Jeff City?

I am just trying to resolve the puzzle as to which Captain Kelly did what, since it appears we have conflicting sources.

I appreciate your help with this one.
Bruce Nichols