John A. Haddock
Union Soldier - Court marshalled
John A. Haddock was born in1822 at Sulphur Springs in the town of Hounsfield, NY, and at the age of 39 enlisted in the 35th New York Volunteer Infantry, Company E on September 3, 1861 at Watertown NY. He enlistd as a 1st Lieutenant and was assigned to recruiting duty. Lieut. Haddock was dismissed from the service with international complications. A party of deserters from the Union army had established a camp on a small island in Canadian waters just above Clayton, where they offered an asylum to other deserters and from which they made foraging expeditons to the American shore.
Lieut. Haddock, with a small party of men, crossed to the island, captured the deserters and brought them back to New York state. This led to a diplomatic correspondence between Washington and the British government, whose sympathies were strongly anti-Union, and upon the request of Lord Lyons, the British minister at Washington, Secretary Stanton dismissed Lieut. Haddock from the service for having "crossed into the territory of a friendly power and made an arrest there." As an indication that this action was prompted rather by motives of policy than by any real displeasure of the administration, Secretary Stanton commissioned Haddock a major in the invalid corps. Maj. Haddock was afterward appointed assistant provost marshal General and assigned to duty at Elmira, where he had charge of the recruiting and mustering in of volunteers for a large portion of this state.
He was prosecuted by Roscoe Conkling, the member of congress for that Oneida county, on several charges in connection with his service in Elmira. He was discharged from service May 9, 1863. He was charged and court marshalled through 1865 and 1866.
A summary of his charges, a day in court, and his conviction are presented below - but it takes a wild twist from here.
Apparently the draft was controlled by the local area governments. Then the Federal government had taken control of the drafting machinery, and appointed Major John A. Haddock, of Watertown, assistant provost marshal general of the Western division of New York, which included Oneida county, with headquarters at Elmira. He took up where County Judge G. L. Smith left off, affiliated with the anti-Conkling faction, and defied Roscoe Conkling, who had by this time become the local dictator in Oneida county. Haddock was also marked for vengeance. Charges were soon fabricated against him, for bounty jumping, and sharing its profits.
Mr. Conkling secured an order for the arrest of Major Haddock, and a special court martial to be held at Syracuse to try Major Haddock, and he had himself appointed a special judge advorate to do the trying. He did it to such purpose that Haddock was cashiered, driven from the service and fined $10,000. He also smeared Judge G. L. Smith and others in the trial.
This case openned the door for the destruction of Roscoe Conkling both politically and personally. See more detailed article below - WATERTOWN TIMES, Monday, February 20, 1893
Major Haddock became a member of the G.A.R. and was buried with full honors after his death in Philadelphia on May 2, 1898.
Utica Observer
Wednesday, May 24, 1865
(Summary only)
TRIAL OF MAJOR HADDOCK
Frauds on the People
-Collusion with Bounty Brokers
-Acceptance of Bribes.
UTICA AND ELMIRA, THE FIELDS OF OPERATION
Charges against Major John A. Haddock, I2th Regiment, Veteran Reserve Corps, Acting Assistant Provost Marshal General, Western Division of New York:
Charge first - Violation of Ninety-ninth Article of War.
Charge second - Violation of eighty third article of War and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.
Charge third - Violation of eighty fifth article of War and fraud
Charge Fourth - Fraud, malfeasance in office abuse of official powers; complicity with bounty brokers in the Western Division of the State of New York : accepting presents and bribes; agreeing to accept presents and bribes; proposing to accept presents and bribes;
26 specifications listed. (The break down is listed using nearly the entire front page of the Utica Observer of Wednesday, May 24, 1865.)
The accused pleaded not guilty to each charge and the specifications under it.
Utica Observer, WEDNESDAY, MAY 24, 1865.
The Trial of Major Haddock.
The trial of Major JOHN A. HADDOCK., 12th Regiment V. R. C, Acting Assistant Provost Marshal General, "Western division of New York, commenced at Elmira on Monday last, is now in progress.
To the citizens of Oneida county the case possesses even greater interest than was anticipated.
Utica is equally with Elmira the scene of the frauds, collusions, &c, with which Major HADDOCK is charged. The persons whose names are involved, creditably or discreditably, innocently or otherwise, in the specifications or testimony, generally live here. County Judge SMITH, of this city, is not only of counsel for HADDOCK, but finds himself set down in the specifications as one with whom the Major " did combine, "conspire confederate and collude," " to cheat and defraud the people and loyal authorities of certain Districts in said Western Division." AARON RICHARDSON, the noted bounty broker, who has made Utica his headquarters for the past two
years, is not only the chief witness, but chief of the parties said to have been in complicity
with HADDOCK. The Provost Marshals in Utica, past and present, are named in the specifications
though not charged with wrong-doing. And other names of our citizens will be found there. Our Member of Congress is the Judge Advocate.
The specifications (in the type of the Herald to which paper they were furnished) are printed on our first page. If the reader, after reading them and looking at the testimony, should suspect that this trial has in it something of the tone and spirit and savor, of the quarrel inside the Republican party of Oneida County, his suspicions will not be unnatural.
We have given the composition of the Court, and need not repeat the names of the military officers who compose it.
The accused objected to Hon. ROSCOE CONKLING being Judge Advocate, and also that there was not a full Court, Maj. GEO. W. JONES, 150th Pa. Vols., being absent, and that therefore the Court could not be sworn. The Court was cleared for deliberation, and upon being again opened, the Court decided to go on without Maj. JONES.
The Court was then sworn by the Judge Advocate, and the Judge Advocate by the Court, and Mr. THEODORE F. ANDREWS as Reporter.
The accused presented as counsel GEORGE W. SMITH, of Utica, Judge G. L. SMITH, of Elmira; and Col. GEORGE A. WOODWARD, 22d Regt. V. R. C. (son of Mr. WOODWARD, recently candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania.)
The Judge Advocate then read the charges and specifications, as they are printed on the first-page of the OBSERVER.
The accused objected to certain specifications, but the Court overruled the objections. AARON RICHARDSON was then sworn, and testified as follows:
Having resided at Albany for 30 years; engaged last winter largely in furnishing recruits in the western division of New York; know Major Haddock; I had John D. Collins in my employ as clerk, in the recruiting business; Collins was also in Judge George W. Smith's office. He (Collins) first told me about Haddock, and Judge Smith and James McQuade of Utica: also told me about Haddock; had conversation about Judge Smith about Haddock; George W. Smith went to Elmira for me to see Major Haddock; he went for specific purposes. I went to Elmira after Smith, the next day to see Haddock; Smith - had not got there; I told Haddock he had started for Elmira; I told Haddock in part what he (Smith) was to come for. I had an interview with Haddock; asked him if he (Haddock) had seen Judge Smith? He said "no". I told him he had started for Elmira the day before. I told him Smith had come to get some papers from him in regard to the quote. He asked me what it was. I hesitated. He told me I need not be afraid to speak out. He said, " I know you -you are Richardson ; I have heard of you
in Utica and also at Washington ; you must not be afraid, but speak out " He said no one was there to hear us. I told him there was no chance in Utica, the quote was too small. He said there was to be an alteration, and that he had a despatch from Gen. Fry, at Washington, that the quote would be larger. I said there would be a chance if I knew it before it became known in Utica. I said it would be well to telegraph it as large as possible. I said "let me know the amount as soon as possible"; he said the quote would be from one thousand to twelve hundred ; he would do what he could to help me if it was all right. He said something about my giving another party a horse. I told him I would give him a horse if he wanted one. He said, " Very well." I told him to meet me at Canandaigua, and I would give him a horse. He said, telegraph me when to meet you and I will meet you there. He said he would like to have known what I wanted about the quote sooner. -I said he had infomation that if he would tell me I could make considerable, and it would be a good thing for him as well as me. I got a letter to go to Major Wilson's barracks. I got it from Major Haddock.
Adjourned.
Syracuse Courier and Union, Thursday, August 3, 1865
THE HADDOCK COURT MARTIAL.
The testimony in the trial of John A. Haddock, by court martial, has been closed. Hon. Roscoe
Conkling, counsel for the prosecution, was making his argument yesterday.
BUFFALO COURIER AND REPUBLIC, WEDNESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 4, 1865
SENTENCE OF MAJOR JOHN A. HADDOCK
The following is the sentence of the notorious Acting Assistant Provost Marshal General, Haddock,
who is well known here:
To be cashiered, and utterly disabled to have or to hold any office or employment in the service of the United States; that he pay a fine of ten thousand dollars to the United States and be imprisoned at such place as the proper authority may designate until the said due be paid.
-the period of said imprisonment not, however, to exceed five years; and in conformity with the eighty-fifth article of war, the Court add in and to the said sentence, that the crime, name and place of abode of the said John A. Haddock, to wit: The town of Watertown, in the State of New York, and punishment of the said delinquent, be published in the newspapers of the said State of New York, from which particular State the said offender came, and where he usually resides," which sentence was duly approved and ordered to be executed.
Ogdensburg Daily Journal, November 1, 1865
John A. Haddock has settled his affairs with the War Department, and is now at his home in Watertown.
So says the Journal.
THE STATE LEAGUE, November 4, 1865
MAJ. HADDOCK RELEASED.-Major John A. Haddock has been released from imprisonment
in the Concord, N. H. jail, having paid his fine of $10 000, and is now at his home in Watertown.
Buffalo Courier and Republic
TUESDAY EVENING, MARCH 20, 1866.
HADDOCK AGAIN.-Tho Rochester Democrat has the following about the loyal ex-A. A. Provost
Major General Haddock who once figured in this city and afterward at Elmira. It says:
Our readers doubtless remember the conviction of Mr. John A. Haddock, late A. A. Provost Marshal
General of the Western District of New York, for fraud, and the fact that he was sentenced to pay a fine
of $ 10,000 and suffer a term of imprisonment; but there are probably few who know all the circumstances
of the affair and what the result of the sentence was.
It appears that some time before Haddock's sentence was officially promulgated he was given to understand
what it was, and he called on several friends and showed them a certified cheque for $9,950, assuring
them that that sum was all he had-that he had raised It by the sale of his property in Watertown-and in order
to raise the other $50 he would have to take up a little contribution. We do not learn that any of his friends responded, but the money was raised and paid, nevertheless.
When the official record of the sentence came it was found that Haddock was to suffer imprisonment for "not more than five years" how much less was not stated. The State Prison at Concord, N. H , was designated as the place where the culprit was to be confined, and he was sent there in charge of an officer.
The latter delivered him to the Warden, of the Prison, obtained a receipt in proper form, and at the proper
time went to the depot to take the train homeward. He found Haddock there before him The late A. A. P.
M G. of the Western District of New York had served out his term of "no more, than five years," and was
also on route for home!
We learn that Haddock afterward went to Philadelphia and bought an interest in a printing house, for
which be paid $71,000: and that he also bought a palatial residence In that city, in which he is now living
at his ease. He has not, probably, made all his money since he was around Elmira. showing his certified
cheque for $ 9,950, and assuring people that it was all he had in the world.
WATERTOWN TIMES
Monday, February 20, 1893
How History Was Changed
The Blaine - Conkling Feud And John A. Haddock's Part In It
Editor Times:
An article in your paper of Feb. 10th, under the above heading, copied from the Buffalo Courier, uses my name in the following paragraph:
" In the meantime the government had taken control of the drafting machinery, and appointed John A. Haddock, of Watertown, provost marshal for Oneida county. He took up the threads where Smith had dropped them, affiliated with the anti-Conkling faction, and defied Conkling,who had by this time become the local dictator. Haddock was also marked for vengeance. Charges were soon found against him-as they probably might have been found against most provost marshals of the period, for bounty jumping was then a very flourishing industry, and those who shared its profits were numerous.
Mr. Conkling secured an order for a special court martial to be held at Syracuse to try Captain Haddock, and he had himself appointed a special judge advorate to do the trying. He did it to such purpose that Haddock was cashiered, driven from the service and fined $10,000."
At the time indicated I WAS not the provost marshal of Oneida county, but was assistant provost marshal general of the Western division of New York, which included Oneida county, with my headquarters at Elmira.
I had been appointed to that responsible position by Gen. James B. Fry, the provost marshal general, without any solicitation on my part, nor had I any special desire for the place. General Fry was probably influenced in his choice by the fact that I had already performed some difficult duties to his satisfaction, and also, perhaps, because I was quite familiar with the duties of the place, for I had served with Gen. Oakes, at Spiingfield, III , and he and Gen. Fry were graduated in the same class at West Point. Be that as It may, Gen. Fry was too good a soldier and too able an executive officer to desire any but the best material in his subordinates. I had not been very long at Elmlra when the provost marshal general addressed to me a very pointed inquiry, wanting to know why there was to much complaint about the Utica office and why Oneida county did not more promptly fill its quota of troops? To this I truthfully replied that the provost marshal's office at Utica was really under the complete control of Roscoe Conkling, the member of congress for that district, and it had come to me from a trustworthy source that that gentleman had openly declared Oneida county had sent all the men to the field she ought to send, and that no more should go withou his consent. Thls communication was shown to Conkling by Secretary Stanton, and from that moment I was marked for vengeance, for I had dared to tell the truth about thls pretentious person, who had held sway in Oneida for so long a time. Thls letter was really the beginning of the attacks made upon myself and Judge Smith, who was an old acquaintance and supposed friend, and had given me many points at to the management of affairs at Utica. No one could then have foreseen the far-reaching influences of that communication, which was eventually to involve Mr. Blaine and Conkling in controversy that was in the end to drive Conkling from public life, but not until his bitterness had wrought its historlc result upon the insane mind of the creature Guitean, who assassinated President Garfield, because he was not a "stalwart," but had dared to make Blaine his chief cabinet officer and had ignored Conkling in distributing party patronage in New York.
While the Buffalo Courier article is correct in some of its "history making" it failed to state the actual cause of the Blaine and Conkling outbreak in the house of representatives at Washington. The facts are these: Conkling had found General Fry an impediment in his way in getting through certain allowances of credits for enlisted men from Oneida county, and disliked him because he could not coerce him to do his bidding. After my trial he was still more bitter against General Fry, and darkly hinted at malfeasance in office in connection with the provost marshal general's administration, and at last he made an attempt in congress to have the office wholly abolished. This brought to General Fry's championship Mr. Blaine, (for Fry was of the distinguished Maine family of that name,) and Blaine retorted upon Conkling that he had been paid $3,000 as judge advocate in the Haddock court martial, notwithstanding the venerable and well-known statute which prohibited a member of congress from receiving any compensation beyond his salary for any labor whatever he might perform for the government. So plain a charge, to truthfully made, was too much for the revengeful and egotistical Conkling, and thus began the historic quarrel between the two leaders in the republican party, which had its fitting termination when Mr. Conkling was wholly eliminated from any further contest for the presidency.
Having said this much in order to throw more light upon the Courier's history making, it will perhaps gratify some of your older readers who were my friends, and who never considered my dismissal just or even legal, if I go a little further and allude to some of the facts developed on my trial and others which have since come to light. The reader will note In the paragraph quoted an insinuation that myself and other provost marshals may have made money by enlistments. How it may have been with others I know not, but I know that when I was placed under military arrest, I had in my possession and under my control over $350,000, some of it money belonging to enlisted men in depot camps nearly ready to go to the front; some of it funds turned in by different provost marshals-but all belonging to the government or to its soldiers, and duly charged against me. I am glad to say that every dollar of that money was promptly accounted for, and that neither the United States nor any soldier ever lost a cent through me. Nor was there any dispute or question about recruits having been properly credited to their respective districts, indeed, so plain was this made apparent from the records of my office that no charge was made upon the trial that any moneys held by me, or that had passed through my bands, had been withheld or misapplied. Yet, the Utica Herald, then the mouth-piece of Conkling. (Its editor, Ellis H. Roberts, not having then quarreled with that individual.) almost daily during the trial and afterwards made allusions to the "Haddock frauds," when no frauds had been discovered, charged or even named at the trial.
Conkling was appointed Judge advocate of the court which was to try me, and named the officers whom he desired to constitute the court. One of these officers, having dropped a word which indicated a favorable opinion of my case at Elmira, was excused from attendance without any request from him, and when the trial was about half over, General Woodward, one of my counsel, was ordered away from Syracuse at the suggestion of Conkling, because his influence upon the two members of the court from Pennsylvania was feared by the judge advocate.
When the trial came on I felt no doubt of an acquittal. But Conkling had a way of distorting evidence, and putting things in a false light by his artfulness and lack of truth in assertions to the court that was hard to combat. While he had swarms of witnesses who were never called but were present in order to make an impression in his favor, he refused to subpoena my list of witnesses even after being ordered to do so by the court. In short, be managed to carry the court with him by many unfair and unheard of proceedings, and he stands in history as the only civilian ever detailed in America to be judge advocate of a court to try a soldier-an innovation as extraordinary as it was unjust-for he was the one who preferred the charges, drew up the specifications, and was finally allowed to name ihe verdict. He was prosecuting lawyer, judge and jury, and this in a case where the defendant had openly defied his power and in other ways incurred his implacable hostility.
But this is not the occasion, nor have I any desire to further discuss over the details of the trial, which would have had a far different ending if I had secured counsel able to cope with the judge advocate. Nor do I perhaps show good taste in casting reflections upon Conkling, for the old Latin proverb says: ''be morluis nil nisi bonum." I write, not in personal vindication, nor from a desire to palliate unfriendly criticism upon my official acts in the army, which I served as one of its humblest soldiers, but with entire good faith, I wish rather to make history truthful, since none are so well able to do this as those who helped to make that history. And to the young an understanding of these matters may prove of the utmost benefit. Mr. Conkling, had he husbanded his talents and restrained his aggressive impulses, and chosen to cultivate a conciliatory spirit among his peers, might have been president almost without the asking. During Grant's two terms he was the unchallenged political dictator in the great state of New York, and the sole distributor of all important government patronage. But when this power was withdrawn by Mr. Arthur partially, and by President Garfield entirely, Conkling found himself without influence. The real friends he had estranged by his egotistical pretensions and the enemies he had made by his insane aggressiveness all turned against him and he was left alone, probably the most unhappy public man in America. "Ichabod"has been written upon all his efforts, and even at this early day since his death it is hard to name any benefit conferred upon his country or upon manhood by anything he has ever done or said. The young men who are now entering upon a business or political career can study his public course with profit, and see how a capable public man, by offensive mannerism, and egotistical vanity, can destroy all his usefulness.
JNo. A. HADDOCK,
WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES, THURSDAY AFTERNOON, MAY 5, 1898
JOHN A. HADDOCK KILLED
RUN OVER BY A TRAIN AT A GRADE CROSSING IN PHILADELPHIA
The Accident Occurred Monday, - Ending A Life Which Compassed Many Varied And Unusual Experiences
Maj. John A. Haddock, a man whom probably was better known in Jefferson County was instantly killed by a train on a grade crossing at the corner of Ninth and Thompson streets in Philadelphia, Monday morning. The news did not each us until last night.
Maj. Haddock had resided in this city and here had spent the major portion of the time writing, he began the preparation of his Centennial History of Jefferson County in 1893. He returned to his home in Philadelphia last December, shortly before the Christmas holidays and has since remained there.
The career of Maj. John A. Haddock, printer, editor, politician, manufacturer, soldier and historian, has been an interesting one, full of life, and color, variety and adventure, has such a resume that it has to be presented within the scope of a newspaper article is of necessity, but an incomplete outline, for while Maj. Haddock wrote a volume of less interesting biographies, his pen has recorded but few of the incidents and changes of his own active life.
John A. Haddock was born at Sulphur Springs in the town of Hounsfield, in 1822. His father was Samuel Haddock, a man of more than ordinary abilities, und his mother was an exceptionally talented woman, a devout Methodist and noted for her power in prayer and ??????.
After receiving such education the local schools could afford, Mr. Haddock began his life's work in 1833 on Democratic Standard, a weekly paper published in Watertown by T. A. and A. L . Smith, with whom be removed to Syracuse in 1836. He returned lo Jefferson county and became associated with Hon. Lysander Brown and Thomas Andrews in the publication of the Democratic Union. at Watertown in 1846. The paper subsequently passed into the hands of Charles A. Stevens, and John A. Haddock, after it had changed its politics from the support of Case to that of Van Buren for the presidency. In the great fire of May 14, 1849, the office was destroyed, but in one week the publication of the paper was resumed, Mr. Haddock having become sole publisher.
Mr. Haddock relinquished his interest in this paper, one of the antecedents of the present Watertown Re-Union, in 1851, but was once more interested in it in 1860, just prior to the purchase by E. J. Clark in August, 1860, Mr. Haddock became associated with Lorne Ingalls in the publication of the Watertown Reformer, but retired from the firm, of which Herman Brockway had then become a member, in September 1860.
In 1859 Mr. Haddock accompanied the aeronaut La Mounatin on the perilous balloon voyage, the story of which has been told and retold.
When Fort Sumter was first fired upon Mr. Haddock was running the old Jefferson cotton mill on Factory Square in which he had invested about $5,000, all that he had saved from his newspaper ventures. The business of the mill was temporarily ruined, and he resolved to enlist in the Union army. He made his way to the camp of the 35th N. Y. Volunteers , just south of the Potomac, and Col. Lord appointed him first lieutenant and detailed him for recruiting duty.
During the first year of this service he recruited and sent to the front from this section over 300 men. Lieut. Haddock's dismissal from the service was the result of a peculiar international complication.
A party of deserters from the Union army had established a camp on a small island in Canadian waters just above Clayton, where they offered an asylum to other deserters and from which they made foraging expeditons to the American shore.
Lieut. Haddock, with a small party of men, crossed to the island, captured the deserters and brought them back to New York state. This led to a diplomatic correspondence between Washington and the British government, whose sympathies were then as strongly anti-Union as they are now pro American, and upon the request of Lord Lyons, the British minister at Washington, Secretary Stanton dismissed Lieut. Haddock from the service for having "crossed into the territory of a friendly power and made an arrest there." As an indication that this action was prompted rather by motives of policy than by any real displeasure of the administration. Secretary Stanton commissioned Haddock a major in the invalid corps. Maj. Haddock was afterward appointed assistant provost marshal and assigned to duty at Elmira, where he had charge of the recruiting and mustering in of volunteers for a large portion of this state. He was prosecuted by Roscoe Conkling on several charges in connection with his service there. Previously, on one occasion he was sent to Indianapolis to investigate the doings of "The Knights of the Golden Circle," and on another occasion he was sent to Buffalo when it was suspected that there was to be a raid on that city by the prisoners of war who were then confined on a small island in Lake Erie.
After the close of the war Maj. Haddock went to Philadelphia. Pa., where he opened a large job printing establishment, which was destroyed by fire after he had conducted it a few years. Haddock suffered a great pecuniary lose, as his plant was uninsured, his insurance , having lapsed but a few hours before the fire occurred.
Maj. Haddock came to this city in 1893 and engaged in the preparation of his centennial history of Jefferson county, which was published in monthly parts, the complete Volume being issued in 1894.
He also prepared and published "The Picturesque St. Lawrence," a book of views and matter descriptive of the St. Lawrence river, its scenery and resorts. In spite of his 75 years, Maj. Haddock was remarkably vigorous, mentally and physically, and his step was as firm, his body as erect and his mental faculties as clear as they were 25 years ago.
Maj. Haddock married Mary F. Loll, the first white child bom in the village of Theresa. She and one son and an unmarried daughter, all of whom reside at Philadelphia, survive him.
Sources:
Newspaper - Utica Observer - Wednesday, May 24, 1865
Newspaper - BUFFALO COURIER AND REPUBLIC - Wednesday, OCTOBER 4, 1865
Jefferson County NYGenWeb, US Civil War Service Records, for John A. Haddock
Newspaper - Buffalo Courier and Republic - TUESDAY EVENING, MARCH 20, 1866
Newspaper - WATERTOWN TIMES, Monday, February 20, 1893
Newspaper - Ogdensburg Daily Journal - November 1, 1865
Newspaper - THE STATE LEAGUE - November 4, 1865
Newspaper - Syracuse Courier and Union - Thursday, August 3, 1865
Newspaper - WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES, THURSDAY AFTERNOON, MAY 5, 1898