Robert E. Clary

Robert Emmet Clary (March 21, 1805 – January 19, 1890) was a career soldier in the United States Army. Graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1828, he served in the quartermaster corps for most of his career. At the end of the American Civil War, he was awarded the honorary grade of brevet brigadier general.

Early life Born March 21, 1805, in Ashfield, Massachusetts, the second son of Electa (Smith) and Ethan Allen Clary was named after the recently executed Irish patriot Robert Emmet. Their family could trace its line back to John and Sarah Clary who arrived in Watertown in 1640. The younger Clarys were raised in a house at Benton Park, at the corner of State and Federal streets in Springfield, where their father clerked a few blocks away at the armory.

Appointed to the U. S. Military Academy in 1823,

Military career Clary served at various stations throughout the country prior to the Civil War. By 1861, he had been promoted to major and was chief quartermaster of the Department of Utah.

Post-Civil War Clary retired from the army on February 22, 1869, as a colonel.

Family Clary had several brothers and sisters, one of whom, retired U.S. Navy commodore Albert Gallatin Clary, was still living at the time of his older brother's death. Clary's first marriage to Esther produced five children who lived to adulthood. Son Robert, Jr. would follow his father into the army, dying as captain in 1864. One daughter, Maria Louisa, married Charles Pomeroy Stone before the war, and died in 1862, leaving Stone with one infant daughter.