John Burke (spy)

John Burke (March 9, 1832 – January 4, 1871) was a Confederate Adjutant General of Texas and spy. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 9, 1832. He was left an orphan by age 11 and eventually he made his way to Marshall, Texas. There he studied law at night and was a cobbler (shoemaker) by day. He was eventually admitted to the bar and took rank as a criminal lawyer alongside his brother-in-law, Pendleton Murrah. When the Civil War broke out, he joined the Confederacy and was briefly a member of the famous Hood's Brigade until he became a scout. He served early in the war as a scout for P. G. T. Beauregard, Joseph E. Johnston, and J. E. B. Stuart during Jackson's Valley Campaign in 1862. He rode with J. E. B. Stuart around George B. McClellan's army in 1862. Burke traveled behind Union lines as far as New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.. He used disguises, frequently the uniform of a Union officer, and would change the color of his artificial eye. He was able to provide Robert E. Lee with valuable information about Union forces and dispositions. Unfortunately, Captain John Burke never really kept a record of any field reconnaissance, but the information he gathered for the Confederacy was "said to have aided Beauregard and Johnston at Manassas." His most daring adventure came after he was apprehended in Philadelphia. He was placed under guard, in irons and handcuffs. As the train to Washington crossed a high trestle, he jumped into a river and made his way back to Lee. Fatigued by his exertions and now a colonel, Burke resigned and accepted appointment by Governor Pendleton Murrah as adjutant general of Texas, effective November 1, 1864. General Lee wrote a letter thanking him for his services. Records of the adjutant general's office were lost in the Texas State Capitol fire of 1881, and little of Burke's service in that assignment is known.

At the end of the war he joined Murrah in his flight to Mexico. After Murrah died on August 4, 1865, Burke returned to Marshall and resumed his law practice. After the war, Burke married Jennie Taylor in 1865. They had two sons and a daughter, all of whom were born at John and Jennie Taylor Burke's plantation, Taylor Hall. Col. Burke emptied his plantation house of all finery as he had to burn it down. During reconstruction, the Yankees seized the plantations of high-ranking officers. Burke knew that being lynched for taking this step was the penalty according to the martial law. No one dared to reproach this dedicated man. His most famous case at the bar was his defense of prisoners held at Jefferson, Texas in the Stockade Case in 1869. Burke died at Jefferson on January 4, 1871, and is buried there.