Clay, Jr., Henry

Born: 1811-04-10 Fayette County, Kentucky

Died: 1847-02-23 Buena Vista, Mexico

Flourished: Kentucky

Henry Clay, Jr., was an attorney, state politician, military officer, and third son of Henry Clay. Born at Ashland, the family estate near Lexington, Kentucky, Clay attended Transylvania University along with Jefferson Davis, who became a lifelong friend. Graduating from Transylvania in 1827, Clay entered the U.S. Military Academy in July 1827, graduating in July 1831 second in a class of thirty-three cadets. The War Department commissioned him as a brevet second lieutenant in the Second U.S. Artillery. In November 1831, Clay resigned his commission and returned to Kentucky, where he read law. In October 1832, Clay married Julia Prather. Earning admittance to the Kentucky bar in 1833, Clay commenced practicing law. He also moved into Kentucky politics, serving in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1835 to 1837. In February 1840, Julia Clay died two weeks after giving birth to Thomas Julian Clay, the last of the couple's five children. Clay continued to practice law until the outbreak of the Mexican War, when he volunteered for military service. In June 1846, he accepted a commission as lieutenant colonel of the Second Regiment of Kentucky Volunteers. Joining Zachary Taylor's forces in Northern Mexico, Clay and his unit engaged in several battles with Mexican forces. He died in action at the Battle of Buena Vista.

Robert V. Remini, Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union (New York: W. W. Norton, 1991), xx, xxi, 558; Lindsey Apple, The Family Legacy of Henry Clay: In the Shadow of a Kentucky Patriarch (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2011), 75; George W. Cullum, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy, 3rd ed. (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1891), 1:471; Paul G. Pierpaoli, Jr., "Clay, Heny, Jr.," The Encyclopedia of the Mexican-American War, ed. by Spencer C. Tucker (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2013), 1:148-49.