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Draft:Joseph B. Stewart

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    Aeon Sentinel (talk) 22:16, 8 December 2025 (UTC)
  • Comment: Please adjust the style of the article and punctuation up to Wikipedia standards. Regarding the punctuation, you can follow my example in the latest edit with the summary "Removing excess space ...". Please remove external links to findagrave.com. Also, one last thing. Providing a mean of access to the sources, such as an url, would make a reviewer's job a lot easier.
    Best,
    Aeon Sentinel (talk) 22:16, 8 December 2025 (UTC)
Joseph B. Stewart
Born(1822-01-31)January 31, 1822
Trimble County, Kentucky
DiedAugust 7, 1882(1882-08-07) (aged 60)
Saint Luke's Hospital, New York
Burial place
The Evergreens Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York
OccupationsLawyer, Lobbyist, Railroads
Spouse(s)Harriet Hughes Stewart (m. 1851-1853); Octavia Ridgely Stewart (m. 1861)
Signature

Joseph Burdette Stewart (January 31, 1822 – August 7, 1882) was an American lawyer, lobbyist, and businessman active in Louisville, Kentucky, Washington, D.C. and New York City from the late 1840s through the early 1880s. He was well-connected to political and business leaders, promoting the Transcontinental Railroad, and working with several short lines throughout the US. He was best known for chasing after John Wilkes Booth in Ford's Theatre during the Lincoln assassination and being held in contempt of Congress during the Crédit Mobilier scandal in 1873.

Contrary to many modern references to him as a US Army major, Joseph B. Stewart did not serve in the military except for a one-week stint in May, 1861 as the paymaster of the Volunteer Naval Brigade in New York (with him leaving the unit shortly before its ill-fated deployment to Fort Monroe).[1]

Early life and education

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Joseph B. Stewart was born on January 31, 1822, in present-day Trimble County, Kentucky. Stewart attended the Transylvania Law School in Lexington, Kentucky, and practiced under Henry Clay. He was admitted as a counsellor to the US Supreme Court in December 1851.[2]

On January 21, 1851, he married Harriet Hughes from Fayette County, Kentucky. Harriet died from tuberculosis on August 13, 1851.[3]

On Monday, August 6, 1855, Stewart returned to his Louisville law office and stumbled upon a group of Know Nothing nativists attacking an Irishman. Stewart pulled him away, which likely saved his life. Over twenty people died from the riots, mostly Irish and German Catholics, on what was later referred to as Bloody Monday.[4]

Career

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Stewart gained wealth and prominence in Kentucky by selling land and winning two large court cases, Southard et al. v. Russell (1853) and the Reeside Case (circa 1850s-1860s). Stewart then moved to Washington, D.C. in search of even larger cases.[5]

On September 2, 1861, Stewart married Octavia Ridgely at the Church of the Epiphany in Washington, D.C. Octavia was the daughter of Lieutenant Henderson “Lott” Ridgely, who died in the Mexican-American War. Octavia testified in the 1859 trial of Representative Daniel Sickles, who murdered US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Philip Barton Key (the son of Francis Scott Key), after learning he was having an affair with his wife, Teresa Bagioli. Octavia was close friends with Teresa, and stayed at the house on the night Sickles discovered the affair, and on the day he killed Key. Octavia died of cancer on June 25, 1873, and was buried at Greenmount Cemetery.[6]

Washington, D.C. Lawyer

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Throughout the Civil War, Joseph B. Stewart was a leading lawyer in Washington, D.C., living in a K Street mansion and being referred to as the “Big Boss of the Lobby.” He was conspicuous in the streets at six feet five inches, weighing over 250 pounds, and with a boisterous disposition. He was known to be an extravagant spender and a heavy gambler in gold and stocks.[7]

Thomas C. Durant, who later became infamous as the “Napoleon of the Railways,” hired Stewart to promote the Pacific Railway project through favorable legislation, and also to help his faction of the Union Pacific Railroad, Eastern Division (UPED) to prevail against John C. Frémont's group. Stewart wrote the section in the Pacific Railway Act of 1864 (amending the Pacific Railway Act of 1862) that facilitated company bonds for the Union Pacific Railroad, since government bonds had failed to attract sufficient capital for construction. Infighting within UPED undermined its efforts to secure the support of Congress and President Andrew Johnson, and ultimately it was not chosen as a main line on the Transcontinental Railroad.[8]

Stewart served as the secretary of the Washington, Alexandria, and Georgetown Railroad, and also established the Alexandria & Fredericksburg Railroad. He left both companies after significant turmoil and several lawsuits.[9]

Stewart used his political access to further his goals. In November 1863, he gifted President Abraham Lincoln's son, Tad, a South American pony. In July 1864, Stewart successfully pressed President Lincoln to reinstate Patrice De Janon, Spanish professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point. In November 1864, working through Treasury Secretary William P. Fessenden, Stewart received a permit from President Lincoln to sell Confederate cotton. Stewart worked with Durant, now the Vice President of the Union Pacific, on cotton contracts until the end of the Civil War.[10]

Perkins Claim

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Stewart was one of several lawyers involved in a claim by Benjamin Perkins, a sea captain who prepared two contracts to supply Russia with gunpowder and rifles during the Crimean War. Perkins bore the cost of producing the munitions, but the Russians reneged on the terms. Gradually, Stewart assumed the leading role for the claim, travelling to Saint Petersburg, Russia in 1860 to dispatch official papers to the American Minister, John Appleton. The claim grew into a significant irritant between the two countries, and Appleton's successor, Cassius M. Clay, deemed the claim to be a “swindle.”[11]

The Perkins Claim went dormant during the civil war, but returned during the 1867 Treaty of Alaska. Stewart and others lobbied for legislation to deduct the claim amount ($285,000) from the treaty appropriation. Although Congress did not support this measure, Stewart continued to press the claim, leading to a bitter feud with the Russian Minister to the US, Constantine Catacazy. As tensions mounted, President Ulysses S. Grant's administration demanded the removal of Catacazy in early 1872. The Russians never paid the claim.[12]

Pursuit of John Wilkes Booth

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On the evening of April 14, 1865, Stewart attended Our American Cousin with three other women in the front row. After seeing John Wilkes Booth descend to the stage, Stewart claimed he immediately understood the gravity of the situation and recognized Booth as the assassin, having previously met him.[13]

After jumping up from his seat, Stewart slipped from the orchestra rail, but recovered and leaped to the stage. Stewart reached the stage as Booth departed behind the wings, yelling "stop that man!" a few times to no avail. One stagehand, Jacob Rittersbach, followed Booth out the door and testified seeing "a tall … and pretty stout man" five-to-six yards behind him. At the backdoor, Stewart saw a person standing three feet from the door, and claimed it was Edman "Ned" Spangler, a carpenter and scene shifter at Ford's Theatre. However, multiple people placed Spangler in his normal work station away from the backdoor.[14]

Outside of Ford's Theatre, Stewart testified seeing Booth imperfectly mounting the horse, and described Booth guiding the horse into a leftward circle to avoid his grasp, and next a rightward circle, before accelerating beyond his reach and out of the alley. Joseph “Peanut John” Burroughs, who held Booth's horse, did not mention seeing Stewart run outside. Two other witnesses in the tenement homes just twenty feet from the theater did not mention seeing or hearing Stewart.[15]

Stewart's claims drew a mixed reaction. Among the detractors, James P. Ferguson remembered a two-to-three-minute gap between Booth and Stewart exiting—although he acknowledged Stewart was the first audience member onstage. Former Washington, D.C. Police Superintendent Almarin C. Richards complained to the Conspiracy Trial star witness, Louis Weichmann, “I do not understand why he gave his imagination such full play in embellishing the part he performed that night.” Corroborating Stewart's timeline, John L. Debonay, who stood by the first entrance on the stage right, testified that Stewart was only two-to-three seconds behind Booth in exiting the stage.[16]

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The last two decades of Stewart's life were a downward spiral of legal problems, financial misfortune, and scandal. Around 1867, he moved to New York City, while still maintaining a regular presence in the capital. In March, he became entangled with Daniel Drew and James Fisk, both notorious “robber barons.” Stewart was arrested for embezzling $200,000 in a stock pool scheme with the Erie Railroad, but was later released due to lack of evidence.[17]

In 1868, Stewart engaged in a long and ultimately unsuccessful legal battle with the Union Pacific, Eastern Division (which was renamed to the Kansas Pacific Railroad) to recover hundreds of thousands of dollars in company bonds. Stewart eventually lost his houses in New York and Washington, D.C.[18]

In the summer of 1872, Stewart actively campaigned in Kansas for President Grant's reelection along with Senator Matthew H. Carpenter from Wisconsin. During these speeches he railed against the States’ Rights cause that he blamed as the cause of the Civil War.[19]

In late 1872, Stewart became involved in a corruption scandal with Senator Samuel C. Pomeroy from Kansas. Senator Pomeroy was accused of bribing a Kansas state senator, as well as pressuring Stewart's former law partner, Edward Clark, to admit drafting an incriminating letter in Pomeroy's name. Stewart corroborated Pomeroy's claim that Clark wrote the letter. However, in early 1873 the Kansas state legislature voted Pomeroy out of office.[20]

Crédit Mobilier Scandal

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In January 1873, Stewart was twice summoned before the Wilson Committee investigating allegations of corruption and congressional bribery from the Crédit Mobilier company, which was purportedly an independent contracting and construction company for the Union Pacific. Stewart was accused of doling out railroad bonds to members of Congress and newspaper editors. In front of a packed Capitol Building, Stewart refused to name names and instead delivered an hour-long lecture on lawyer-client privilege. He was held in contempt of Congress, kept in a congressional room for over a month, and was criticized nationwide as the “contumacious witness.”[21]

Later Years

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In the latter half of the 1870s, Stewart shifted his attention south, supporting the Florida Central Railroad and the Western Division of the Western North Carolina Railroad. He worked with notorious "Prince of Carpetbaggers" General Milton S. Littlefield, and the South's "Chief Scallywag" George W. Swepson, whose corruption devastated both states’ railroad industries and hindered their overall economic development. Stewart's work across both states presented a conflict of interest that led to him being pushed out as legal counsel in both states.[22]

Stewart died in New York on August 7, 1882, at Saint Luke's Hospital from kidney inflammation. He died insolvent and with unresolved legal cases. He did not have any surviving children.[23] Joseph B. Stewart was initially placed in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, but ultimately buried at nearby Evergreens Cemetery.[24]

References

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  1. ↑ New York Daily Herald, May 23, May 24, 1861; “Departure of the Naval Brigade,” New York Daily Herald, 29 May, 1861, p. 8.
  2. ↑ “The Late Col. Stewart,” Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky) Aug. 11, 1882, p. 6; “Supreme Court of the United States,” Washington Union, Dec. 14, 1851, p. 4.
  3. ↑ “Married,” Louisville Daily Courier, Jan. 25, 1851, p. 3; “Died,” Louisville Daily Courier, Aug. 19, 1852, p. 1.
  4. ↑ “The Louisville Riots,” Washington Democrat (Salem, Indiana), Sep. 28, 1855, p. 2; Wallace S. Hutcheon, Jr., “The Louisville Riots of Augst, 1855,” Register of Kentucky Historical Society, 69 (April, 1971), 160-61.
  5. ↑ “The Reeside Claim,” Louisville Daily Courier, May 30, 1857, p. 2; “Our Washington Letter,” Louisville Daily Courier, June 7, 1867, p. 1; Southard et al. v. Russell, 57 US 547 (1853); Reeside v. Walker, 52 US 272 (1850); Reeside’s Executor v. Reeside, 49 Pa. 322 (1865); Reeside v. United States, 75 US 38 (1868).
  6. ↑ Lieut. Henderson Ridgely,” Baltimore Sun, Nov. 28, 1848, p. 1; “Fashionable Marriage,” Philadelphia Press, Sep. 3, 1861, p. 2; Chris DeRose, Star Spangled Scandal: Sex, Murder, and the Trial that Changed America (Washington, D.C, 2019), 80, 92, 221-22; Baltimore Sun, June 26, 1873, p. 2.
  7. ↑ “The Power of the Lobby,” Evening Star, Jan. 12, 1884, p. 3; Roland Kirk, Many Secrets Revealed: Or, Ten Years Behind the Scenes in Washington City by a Washington Journalist (Washington, D.C., 1885), 25; “Seventy-Three Giants: The Grand Classical Banquet of the Titans in Delmonico’s,” New York Times, March 2, 1882, p. 2.
  8. ↑ Maury Klein, Union Pacific: 1862-1893 (3 vols, Minneapolis, 1987) I, 14-15, 28, 57-59; William R. Petrowski, “The Kansas Pacific: A Study in Railroad Promotion” (Ph.D. diss., Wisconsin University, 1966).
  9. ↑ “Washington, Alexandria, and Georgetown R. R.,” Alexandria Gazette, June 9, 1863, p. 1; “Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railroad Company,” New Era (Washington, D.C.) Nov. 3, 1865, p. 4; Alexandria Gazette, Aug. 16, 1866, p. 3.
  10. ↑ Washington Weekly Chronicle, Nov. 15, 1863, p. 4; Letter from Joseph B. Stewart to Abraham Lincoln, July 7, 1864, Abraham Lincoln Papers: Series 1. General Correspondence. 1833 to 1916, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/resource/mal.3433300/; Joseph B. Stewart to John P. Usher, July 7, 1864, Abraham Lincoln Papers: Series 1. General Correspondence. 1833 to 1916, Library of Congress,https://www.loc.gov/item/mal3433100; Sixty-Second Congress, Session II, Congressional Record: Containing the Proceedings and Debates, 48 (Dec. 4, 1911 – Jan. 17, 1912), “Legal Representatives of Samuel Schiffer,” 885.
  11. ↑ William W. Evarts, In the Matter of Benjamin W. Perkins Against the Russian Government (Washington, D.C., 1861), 2-4; Baltimore Sun, Aug. 24, 1860, p.1; The Life of Cassius Marcellus Clay. Memoirs, Writings, and Speeches, Showing His Conduct in the Overthrow of American Slavery, the Salvation of the Union, and the Restoration of the Autonomy of the States (Cincinnati, 1886), 364.
  12. ↑ Letter from Joseph B. Stewart to Thaddeus Stevens, June 16, 1867, Thaddeus Stevens Papers: General Correspondence, 1829-1869; 1867, Apr.-June, Library of Congress; “Catacazy’s Decapitation,” San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 10, 1872, p. 2; New York Sun, Dec. 25, 1872, p. 2; Paul S. Holbo, Tarnished Expansion: The Alaska Scandal, the Press, and Congress, 1867-1871 (Knoxville, Tennessee) 1983, 15-17l; New York Sun, Dec. 25, 1872, p. 2.
  13. ↑ “He Was One of Booth’s Pursuers,” Saint Louis Post Dispatch, June 27, 1897, p. 14; Stewart’s testimony is found in William C. Edwards, The Lincoln Assassination - The Trial Transcript (E-Book, 2012), 421-3.
  14. ↑ Rittersbach’s testimony is found in William C. Edwards, The Lincoln Assassination, 393-94, 726-31, 827-28; Edman Spangler’s defense summary is found in Benn Pitman, ed., The Assassination of President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators (New York, 1865), 276-88.
  15. ↑ Edwards, The Lincoln Assassination, 421-31; Burroughs’s testimony is found in ibid., 465-66; The tenement dwellers’ testimony are found in ibid., 195-200; “Will the Real ‘Peanuts’ Burroughs Please Rise?!” Surratt Courier (June 1989), 1, p. 3-7.
  16. ↑ Ferguson’s testimony is found in Edwards, The Lincoln Assassination, 160-164, 782-83; Debonay’s testimony found in ibid., 805-7, 1167-70; Floyd R. Risvold, ed., A True History of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the Conspiracy of 1865 (New York, 1977), 42.
  17. ↑ “More of the Erie ‘Pool’ Operators,” Buffalo Commercial, April 2, 1867, p. 2.
  18. ↑ Supreme Court of the United States, No. 501 (1875), Joseph B. Stewart, Appellant, v. Union Pacific Railroad Company, Eastern Division, 427, 683-84; Thompson et al. v. Simpson et al. 128 N.Y. 270 (1891); John N. Maffitt v. Joseph B. Stewart Et al., Supreme Court of the District of Columbia (1874), Equity Case File 3742, RG 21, Box 273, National Archives, Washington, D.C.
  19. ↑ “Grand Republican Rally,” Topeka Weekly, June 20, 1872, p. 3; “Open Air Meeting,” Leavenworth Times, June 28, 1872, p. 4; “How History Repeats Itself,” The Daily Commonwealth, Aug. 20, 1872, p. 2.
  20. ↑ Martha B. Caldwell, “Pomeroy’s ‘Ross Letter’: Genuine or Forgery?” Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains, 13, (Aug. 1944), 463-72.
  21. ↑ Robert B. Mitchell, Congress and the King of Frauds: Corruption and the Credit Mobilier Scandal at the Dawn of the Gilded Age (Roseville, Minnesota, 2019), 121-22; “The Contumacious Witness in Prison,” Baltimore Sun, Feb. 1, 1873, p. 1; Joseph B. Stewart, The Bastille: Testimony of Joseph B. Stewart Before a “Select Committee,” Given on the 18th and 29th of January, 1873, With Remarks About His “Contempt.”(Washington, D.C., 1873).
  22. ↑ Jonathan Daniels, Prince of Carpetbaggers (Philadelphia, 1958), 284-86; Paul E. Fenlon, “The Struggle for Control of the Florida Central Railroad,” 1867-1882, Florida Historical Quarterly, 34 (Jan. 1956), 225-26, 233; Thomas E. Jeffrey, “An Unclean Vessel: Thomas Lanier Clingman and the ‘Railroad Ring,’” North Carolina Historical Review, 74 (Oct. 1997), 421-24.
  23. ↑ “The Late Col. Stewart”; Joseph B. Stewart file, Evergreens Cemetery.
  24. ↑ “Bodies in Transit; Year Range: 1881-1894,” New York Municipal Archives; New York, New York.
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