Martin Burke, Prisoner Of War

Some gentlemen of this city, who were on a chance visit to Cairo the other day, inform us that Colonel Martin Burke, formerly of St. Louis, was among the prisoners who were brought to that place from Memphis on the steamer Fairchild.  He was en route, together with all the other commissioned officers, to Johnson's Island, in Sandusky harbor, and the privates were to be conveyed to prison quarters at Alton.

Our informants had but a moments conversation, during which he confirmed the report that Colonel Hugh A. Garland, Jr., his predecessor in command of the regiment, had been killed during one of the battles between the forces of Hood and Thomas in Tennessee.  The prisoner himself was in robust health, having fully recovered from a severe wound in the lungs received several months ago in the vicinity of Atlanta.

His family is residing in the State of Alabama.  They learned nothing of the particulars of his late capture, and heard no mention of officers or men of the regiment, other than Col.  Garland.  He promised to write to some of his St. Louis acquanintances after reaching his prison destination.

The regiment which is thus deprived, for the third time, of its leader, was made up in great part of St. Louisans, and was one of the first to enter into the rebel cause from Missouri.  It has been three years and a half of hazardous service for disunion and cannot, at this late day, embrace many of its original members within its rank.  J.H. Bowen, the first Colonel, was promoted to a Generalship, and died not long after the surrender of Vicksburg.  Col. Garland was a young lawyer of this city..

-Missouri Republican, January 18, 1865

Martin Burke's Obituary

Col. Martin Burke, well known in St. Louis previous to the war, died last week in Natchez, Miss.  He was only thirty-five years of age.  About two months ago he left St. Louis for Natchez, where, as here, he soon surrounded himself with a host of friends and admirers.

-Missouri Republican, January 22, 1870


E.H. Tobias wrote that Burke was killed during the war and I quoted him to that effect in Base Ball Pioneers.  However, it appears that Tobias was wrong and that Burke lived through the war.  This leads to the question of whether or not Burke, who served as a company commander in Bowen's Division, was at Shiloh and/or Vicksburg.     

Martin Burke

Martin Burke

[Martin] Burke, a pitcher for the Morning Stars was born in Canada in 1836.  Living in St. Louis by 1860, he was a partner in a small grocery store and lived on N. 16th Street near Carr Square Park. 

While living in St. Louis, Burke joined the St. Louis Greys, the oldest volunteer militia unit in the city and by 1861 he was the Greys' commanding officer.  The Greys were mustered at Camp Jackson in May of 1861 and it can be assumed that Burke surrendered to Union forces along with the other Missouri militia units at Camp Jackson.  While he was most likely released upon promising not to take up arms against the Union, Burke joined the 1st Missouri Infantry on the Confederate side, serving as Captain.  In "short time [he] was brought home severely wounded.  He did not long survive..."

-Base Ball Pioneers 1850-1870


I started reading a biography of John S. Bowen, whose staff Edward Bredell served on, and I quickly came across the name of Martin Burke.  Bowen lived in St. Louis prior to the war and moved in the same circles as some of the city's pioneer baseball players.  He most likely knew the Bredell family prior to the outbreak of the war and, given the nature of their roles at the time of the Camp Jackson affair, he also probably knew Basil Duke.  Burke served under Bowen at Camp Jackson and, later, with the 1st Missouri Infantry.  It appears that the two men were friends.

The above photo of Burke comes from the Missouri History Museum.