In 1861 when the Civil War broke out, Burnett joined the 2nd Ohio Cavalry, where he rose to the rank of major in 1862. In this capacity he commanded 400 cavalry soldiers during an operation into the Oklahoma Territory, and defended the actions of a colonel who placed General James Blunt under arrest.[6] After being trampled by a horse and seriously injured in 1863, however, he transferred to the Judge Advocate General's Corps of the Department of the Ohio, working for Joseph Holt, the Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Army.[5]
In 1865, he was appointed brevetcolonel in the Judge Advocate Corps.[5]
The trial began on May 10, 1865. The three spent nearly two months in court, awaiting a verdict from the jury. Holt and Bingham attempted to obscure the fact that there were two plots. The first plot was to kidnap Lincoln in exchange for the Confederate prisoners the Union had. The second was to assassinate Lincoln, Vice PresidentAndrew Johnson and Secretary of StateWilliam H. Seward to throw the government into chaos.[2]
It was important for the prosecution not to reveal the existence of a diary taken from the body of Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth. The diary made it clear that the assassination plan dated from April 14. The defence surprisingly did not call for Booth's diary to be produced in court. Holt was accused of withholding evidence, but it was never proven.
On June 29, the eight were found guilty for their involvement in the conspiracy to kill Lincoln. Arnold, O'Laughlen and Mudd were sentenced to life in prison, Spangler six years in prison and Atzerodt, Herold, Paine and Surratt were to hang. They were executed July 7, 1865. Surratt was the first woman in American history to be executed. O'Laughlen died in prison in 1867. Arnold, Spangler, and Mudd were pardoned by Andrew Johnson in early 1869.
Following the completion of the trial, in October 1865, Burnett asked to be mustered out on December 1, 1865, which was granted. Senator John Sherman and Holt asked for him to be appointed a brevetbrigadier general, which he accepted in May 1866.[5] On January 13, 1866, PresidentAndrew Johnson nominated Burnett for appointment to the grade of brevet brigadier general of volunteers, to rank from March 13, 1865, and the United States Senate confirmed the appointment on March 12, 1866.[7]
Burnett again moved to New York, this time in Buffalo, where he served as counsel to the Buffalo and Erie Railroad (where his father-in-law was treasurer), until 1874. After the railroad, he formed several law practices in New York with various prominent men, including Emott, Burnett & Hammond (with former judge James Emott, Henry B. Hammond, and Charles C. Emott in 1875),[8][9] which litigated for and against the Railways,[10][11][12]Emott, Burnett & Kidder (with Camillus George Kidder in 1877),[9][13][14]Bristow, Peet, Burnett, & Opdyke (with Benjamin Bristow, a former Secretary of the Treasury, William Peet, and W. S. Opdyke in 1878),[15] and Burnett & Whitney (with Edward Baldwin Whitney in 1883).[16][2] He was notably involved in representing the English bondholders in the Emma Silver Mine litigation.[17]
In 1898, PresidentWilliam McKinley, his close friend,[4] appointed Burnett federal district attorney for the southern district of New York.[17] Upon completion of his four-year term, he was reappointed by McKinley's successor, Theodore Roosevelt, for another four-year term in 1901, which he served in until his retirement in 1906.[1]
Personal life
On October 27, 1858, Burnett married Grace "Kitty" Hoffman (1842–1864), the daughter of Benjamin F. Hoffman, a judge. Together, they were the parents of:[5]
After his first wife's death in 1864, he married Sarah Gibson Lansing (1846–1877), the daughter of Brig. Gen. Henry Livingston Lansing (1818–1889), treasurer of the Buffalo and Erie Railroad, and Catharine Olivia (née Gibson) Lansing (1818–1897), on September 4, 1867. Her paternal grandfather was Barent Bleecker Lansing and her maternal grandparents were Henry Bicker Gibson (1783–1863), banker and president of the Rochester and Syracuse Railroad, and one of the richest men in Western New York, and Sarah (née Sherman) Gibson (herself the aunt of William Watts Sherman). Before her death in 1877, they were the parents of:
Catherine Olivia Gibson Burnett (1873–1934), who married Robert Jewett Mercur (1854–1929) in 1895. They divorced and she married John Evans Bell (1864–1952). Her last marriage was to Robert Meade Van Deusen.[21]
Lansing Burnett (1869–1893), who died unmarried.[2]
Robert Suffern Tailer Burnett (1895–1895), who died young.[5]
He died on January 4, 1916, at his home, 7 East 12th Street, in New York City.[4] He had been ill for the previous year with pneumonia, traveling between his city home and country home.[30] After a large funeral, he was interred in Slate Hill Cemetery in Goshen.[31]
Society life
In 1892, both Burnett and his wife Agnes were included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times.[32] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.[33]
Seeking a country home away from the city, Burnett and his wife purchased a horse-breeding farm in Goshen, New York, known as "Hillside Farm," where he raced his stock on the amateur circuit.[4] The 193-acre estate was sold in 1917.[34]
^Joshua E. Kastenberg, Law in War, Law as War: Brigadier General Joseph Holt and the Judge Advocate General’s Department in the Civil War and Early Reconstruction, 1861-1865 (Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2011), 139.