War of 1812 Green Clay (August 14, 1757 – October 31, 1828) was an American businessman, planter, military officer and politician in Virginia and Kentucky.

[1] Clay served in the American Revolutionary War and helped form the new state of Kentucky after representing its Madison County in the Virginia Ratifying Convention of 1788 and in the Virginia House of Delegates which ultimately authorized creation of the new state of Kentucky.

During the War of 1812 Clay was commissioned as a general and led the Kentucky militia in the relief of Fort Meigs in Ohio.

He was believed to be one of the wealthiest men of the state, owning tens of thousands of acres of land, many slaves, several distilleries, a tavern, and ferries, although one of his sons, Cassius Marcellus Clay would become a prominent abolitionist.

During the American Revolution, Clay enlisted as a private in Captain William McCracken's Company, which was part of Clark's Illinois Regiment of Virginia Militia.

By 1781 he received an appointment as deputy surveyor of Lincoln County, Virginia which ultimately became part of the new state of Kentucky.

[3] Meanwhile, Green Clay also won election as one of Madison County's two representatives in the Virginia Ratifying Convention of 1788 (with John Miller; and his elder brother Rev.

[1] By 1793, Clay had become a justice of the peace in Madison County and by year's end was elected to the lower house of Kentucky's legislature.

[1] In 1802, Clay had become one of the trustees of Transylvania University, and attempted to lure fellow Virginian James Madison to become that college's president.

In the spring of 1813, he was ordered to the aid of General William Henry Harrison, who was besieged by British forces led by Gen. Proctor at Fort Meigs, Ohio.

Clay and the three thousand men he had brought fought their way into the fort; and the British and native forces ultimately withdrew.

He also published a pamphlet 'To the People of Kentucky and of the United States' (1825) that concerned disputed title in the Tennessee River Valley.