BIOGRAPHY: Bernard Kelly; Highland Falls, Orange co., New York

transcribed by W. David Samuelsen for USGenWeb Archives

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Portrait and Biographical Record of Rockland and Orange Counties New York
Containing Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative
Citizens of the Counties.
Together with Biographies and Portraits of all the Presidents of the United
States.
New York and Chicago; Chapman Publishing Co., 1895

BERNARD KELLY. This name will be at once recognized by the majority of our
readers as that of a man who served his country as a soldier for a period of
thirty years and possesses a remarkable record. During the Civil War he fought
in forty-two noted engagements, and so fierce was the conflict at times that
his horses were shot from under him and comrades were falling on every side,
yet he passed through those four years without a scratch. His discharge from
the service bears the names and dates of the battles in which he participated,
making a record of which very few soldiers can boast.

Our subject was born in Ireland in 1843, and was a lad of thirteen years when
he made the trip across the Atlantic in a common sailing-vessel. He was landed
in New York Harbor after a tedious voyage of three months, during which
time he experienced many hardships. His means were very limited, and his
knowledge of America and its ways was also meager, so he was obliged to work
at whatever he could find to do that was honorable. He lived for the first
year in New Jersey, after which he visited Florida and Georgia, remaining in
that locality for the succeeding five years. He was very apt in making use of
what knowledge he possessed, and by observing closely became well informed in
regard to the peculiarities of the southern people. At the expiration of that
time he removed to New York and remained near that city until the outbreak of
the late war. He then enlisted in Company K, First United States Light
Artillery, and with his comrades went to the front to fight for the honor of
his adopted country. He was a brave soldier, always ready to do his duty, and
as such gained the esteem and confidence of his officers.

Mr. Kelly saw much of the dark side of the war. While at Stony Creek, Va., he
was captured and sent to Libby Prison, from which vile place he was afterward
transferred to Andersonville, remaining there until the 20th of March, 1864.
The reader knows too well the tortures to which the Union prisoners were
subjected and the base treatment which they received at the hands of the
enemy. While our subject was there the death rate exceeded three hundred per
day. He miraculously escaped this terrible end, but when released was little
more than a skeleton. He is highly honored and esteemed by the residents of
this county, and nothing gives him more pleasure than to relate his experience
on the battlefield, which he tells in a most thrilling and interesting manner.
After the establishment of peace he remained in the regular army for eleven
years, after which he was in the Ordnance Department at West Point. On the
expiration of his thirty years of service he determined to retire to private
life, and accordingly selected Highland Falls as his future place of
residence. His pleasant dwelling is beautifully located on an elevation
over-looking the city, and here it is his intention to live quietly and
peaceably for the remainder of his life.

Bernard Kelly and Miss Mary McGuire were married in Highland Falls in 1873.
She was born in New York in 1850, and has become the mother of a daughter,
Amelia A., who married Prof. Odil Brennan, of the National Preparatory Academy
at Highland Falls. Socially Mr. Kelly is a Grand Army man, belonging to Ryder
Post No. 598, and in religious affairs is a devout Catholic.