Return to Military Page

Bibliography of  John Conline
Served in:
 The 9th Cavalry - Buffalo Soldiers
at Ft. Bayard, New Mexico
at Los Pinos Indian Agency
at Ft. Stanton, New Mexico
at Ft. Selden, New Mexico
 at Ft. Union, New Mexico
the Victorio War of 1880

Format By C. W. Barnum
Used with permission from Robert Tavernier

 

 

MAJOR JOHN CONLINE (1846 Vermont - 1916 Washington D.C.)
Original Member of the Michigan Commandery, Insignia Number 4926
Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States
By
Robert Tavernier
(November 2004)
John Conline was born January 1, 1846 in Rutland, Vermont.1 John decided at an early age that he wanted to pursue a military career. In 1859, John sent an application to Secretary of War John Floyd, seeking an appointment to West Point. In 1860, John re-submitted his application to Secretary Floyd and anxiously waited for a reply.2 Receiving none; John was one of the first to answer President Lincoln's call for volunteers by enlisting in the First Vermont Volunteer Infantry on May 9, 1861, at the young age of fifteen, and mustered out with that unit three months later on August 15, 1861. John re-enlisted in the Fourth Vermont Infantry on March 1, 1862,3 and was discharged on September 5, 1863, to accept an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point. During this period; the Fourth Vermont Infantry was engaged in the following:

 

    Siege of Yorktown April 5 - May 4, 1862, Lee's Mills April 16. Battle of Williamsburg May 5. Seven days before Richmond June 25 - July 1. Garnett's Farm June 27. Savage Station June 29. White Oak Swamp Bridge June 30. Malvern Hill July 1. At Harrison's Landing till August 16. Moved to Fortress Monroe, thence to Alexandria August 16 - 24. Maryland Campaign September - October. Crampton's Gap , Maryland, September 14. Battle of Antietam September 16 - 17. At Hagerstown, Maryland, September 26-October 29. Movement to Falmouth October 29 - November 19. Battle of Fredericksburg December 12 - 15. Burnside's Second Campaign, "Mud March," January 20 - 24, 1863. Chancellorsville Campaign April 27 - May 6. Operations at Franklin's Crossing April 29 - May 2. Maryes Heights, Fredericksburg, May 3. Salem Heights May 3 - 4. Banks' Ford May 4. Franklin's Crossing June 5 - 13. Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 2 - 4. Funkstown July 10 - 13. Detached for duty at New York August 14 - September 16, 1863.4

In the eighteen months John served with the Fourth Vermont Infantry he was involved in an equal number of campaigns, including but not limited to Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Franklin's Crossing and Gettysburg. During the Battle of Antietam and parallel to the "sunken road" or "bloody lane," Edward S. Cooper the soldier on John's left was "dangerously" wounded when an artillery shell exploded directly in front of them.5 "At Little Round Top at Gettysburg; bullets pierced his haversack and canteen. At Fredericksburg, his company formed the rear guard in the right wing's retreat across the Rappahannock."6 Undaunted by this experience, John was determined to continue in his pursuit of a military career.

Following the Civil War, Major Conline wrote a paper entitled, Recollections of the Battle of Antietam and the Maryland Campaign. Major Conline presented this paper before the Michigan Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS) on January 7, 1897. The paper was published in 1898 in Volume 2 (pages 110-119) of the collection of War Papers read before the Michigan Commandery of the MOLLUS.7

During the winter of 1862, while on leave, John traveled to Washington to persuade Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to appoint him to West Point. John was successful in his efforts and Secretary Stanton agreed to his appointment. 8 It was during his tour of duty in New York, following the draft riots, when Conline received orders to report to West Point. Conline received his appointment from Georgia (?), entered West Point on September 9, 1863, and graduated on June 15, 1870. These were difficult years for John, requiring seven years to complete a four year program. Finally after dropping several classes and failing to complete his third year, due to illness and fatigue, John received a leave of absence from the academy, on March 31, 1866. John returned to the academy the following year and was found deficient in chemistry, during the June 1868 examination. On July 6, 1868, John was automatically discharge from the academy. William Roe, a classmate of John's, wrote that John, "borrowed enough dollars from an officer then stationed on the post . . . went on to Washington, laid his case personally before the President [Johnson] and asked to be reinstated. And the President [Johnson] did reinstate him." On January 30, 1869, upon the recommendation of the Academic Board, John was reinstated. John graduated the following year, 54th out of a class of 59 cadets, was commissioned a Second Lieutenant and assigned to the Ninth Cavalry serving on the western frontier.9

    Military History:

    Before becoming a West Point Cadet in 1863, John Conline served during the Civil War as a Private of Vermont Volunteers May 2 to August 15, 1861, and March 1, 1862 to September 5, 1863, being engaged in the various battles and operations of the Army of the Potomac in the Virginia, Peninsular, Maryland, Rappahannock, and Pennsylvania Campaigns. Upon graduation from West Point, Second Lieutenant Conline's military career progressed as follows:

    Ft. Stockton, Texas, October 10, 1871 to November 15, 1873 (conducting prisoners to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, January 16 to April 10, 1872, and on leave of absence, February 22, to August 22, 1873). - Ft. McKavett, Texas, November 26, 1873 to January 29, 1874, - Ft. Concho, Texas, to August 23, 1874, - on Expedition to Indian Territory to November 27, 1874, - on temporary duty at headquarters, Department of Texas, December 24, 1874, to February 1, 1875, - Ft. Clark, Texas, February 14 to December 27, 1875, (FIRST LIEUTENANT, 9th Cavalry, November 15, 1875), - Ft. Garland, Colorado, January 27, 1876 to April 3, 1877, (leave of absence, July 11 to September 4, 1876), - Los Pinos Indian Agency, April 3 to June 16, 1877, - Ft. Bayard, New Mexico, July 25 to September 18, 1877, and Ft. Union, New Mexico to October 2, 1877; in U.S. Insane Asylum, Washington, D.C. October 23 to December 14, 1877; before Retiring Board, to December 31, 1877; awaiting orders, to February 5, 1878; and on sick leave of absence, February 5 to August 20, 1878; in arrest at Ft. Bayard, New Mexico, August 20, 1878 to February 8, 1879; on frontier duty at Ft. Selden, New Mexico, to June 12, 1879, - Ojo Caliente, New Mexico to July 23, 1879, - Ft. Union, New Mexico, to January 1, 1880, - Scouting, to October 12, 1880, being engaged with hostile Indians in the Sacramento and San Andres Mountains, New Mexico, February 28 and April 5 and 7-8, 1880, - Ft. Stanton, New Mexico to February 26, 1881, - and Scouting, to April 12, 1881; absent sick, to July 27, 1885; on frontier duty at Ft. Niobrara, Nebraska, to Mar. 18, 1887, (CAPTAIN, 9th Cavalry, February 11, 1887); on leave of absence, to June 18, 1887; and on frontier duty at Ft. Robinson, Nebraska to June 5, 1888, and Garrison duty at Ft. Du Chesne, Utah Territory, (BREVET CAPTAIN, February 27, 1890, for gallant services in action against Indians in the San Andres Mountains, New Mexico, April 7, 1880) commanding troop to May 1890. - On leave of absence awaiting retirement to February 25, 1891.

     

    RETIRED FROM ACTIVE SERVICE, FOR DISABILITY IN THE LINE OF DUTY, February 25, 1891
    Major U.S.A., Retired, April 23, 1904
    Act of April 23, 1904
    Died, October 16, 1916 at Washington, D.C., Aged 72 Years.
    Civil History:

    In charge of the "Pingree Potato Farms," in Detroit, 1896. - Police Commissioner of Detroit, Michigan, 1896 - 1900. - Author of Recollections of the Battle of Antietam and the Maryland Campaign, - Member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, Michigan Commandery, - Member of the Association of Graduates of U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York; and Michigan Sovereign Consistory, A. A. S. R. 320, Valley of Detroit. - Residence, Detroit, Michigan.10

In 1872, John married fifteen year old Emma Jane Leland, of New York. On December 21, 1875, a daughter Viola Alger was born. This was a troublesome marriage for the Conline's. Mrs. Conline accompanied her husband to the frontier where she, "was ordered to leave Fort Garland, Colorado in 1877 - on the grounds that she was insane and therefore disturbing the order and quiet of the post. Her primary offense was conduct unbecoming a lady. In addition to her speaking openly of having an abortion, she used 'unladylike and violent language,' made daily visits to the laundress' quarters where she gossiped about officers, and it was rumored that she had chased one laundress with a gun."11 When Conline refused "to send Emma away," he "endured arrest for forty days while appealing the order to General Pope." Failing to win on appeal, Conline had no choice but to accompany his wife back to New York. While enroute to New York, Emma "berated Conline for being too weak to defend her . . . and badgered him into 'signing separation paper.'"12 John and Emma divorced in 1879.

Returning to Fort Garland, conditions for John continued to deteriorate. Facing courts-martial, John suffered a "nervous breakdown" and was committed to the Insane Asylum in Washington, D.C. in October 1877. "When he arrived there, Dr. W.W. Godding, the superintendent, found him 'incoherent and irritable.' He was so 'thin and haggard' that he resembled 'a person who had been through some exhausting labor.'" Three months later, John was released from the asylum and "brought before a retirement board." Prevailing before the retirement board and acquitted on all courts-martial charges, Conline was returned to duty.13

 

On April 4th, 1880, four companies of Buffalo Soldiers, A, D, F and G, 9th Cavalry under the command of Captain Henry Carroll, left Tularosa, New Mexico in search of a band of hostile Indians led by the Apache Chief Victorio. On the morning of April 5th, 1880, Lieutenant Conline in command of "A" Troop 9th Cavalry was ordered in advance to locate Victorio and his warriors, who were believed to be in the San Andreas Mountains of New Mexico. After a 37 mile march, 35 to 50 Apaches including Victorio were located near the mouth of Hembrillo Canyon. At 5:30 p.m., "when the Indians advanced to within about 250 yards, a heavy fire was opened, which caused them to halt and seek cover. The Indians fired rapidly in the beginning, and afterwards kept up a desultory fire until 7:30 p.m., when the engagement closed and the Indians fell back." Casualties were reported as two wounded, two horses killed and one horse wounded. Indian casualties were not reported. Since there was no water in the area, Lieutenant Conline rejoined the main body of the command at 11:00 p.m. The next morning Captain Carroll again divided his command. Companies A and G were under the commands of Lieutenants Conline and Cusak respectively. Companies D and F remained with Captain Carroll.14 In the late afternoon of April 6th, Captain Carroll came under heavy fire, in the Hembrillo Basin, and was completely surrounded by Victorio and approximately 150 Apache warriors. Captain Carroll was severely wounded as were several of his men, some mortally. Several horses and mules were killed. The attack continued well into the night, leaving Captain Carroll and his men in a hopeless position. On the morning of April 7th, 1880, as Victorio and his warriors were about to rush Captain Carroll's position, Lieutenants Conline and Cusak came to the rescue of Captain Carroll and his men. With the addition of three more companies and Apache Scouts, the cavalry was able to force Victorio and his warriors to retreat; thereby ending the largest Military Battle of the Victorio War on April 8, 1880.15 Lieutenant Conline received a commendation for his actions during this campaign.

In 1886, Conline commanded the Department of the Platte Rifle Team. On August 24, 1886, during the annual marksmanship competition held at Fort Omaha's Bellevue Rifle Range, Conline fired a near perfect score, at 500 yards, with nine bulls-eyes and one shot slightly off center. John scored 48 out of a possible 50 points and was awarded a marksmanship medal.16

On September 1, 1887, Conline married Fannie Strickland, of Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa. In 1889, a daughter Vivienne Duchesne was born.17 In 1891, after John's retirement, the family moved to Detroit, Michigan.

During the depression of 1893, unemployment in the city of Detroit was estimated at over ten percent. Detroit's Mayor Hazen S. Pingree established a public works project, providing work and food for the city's poor, by allowing city residents to plant vegetable gardens on vacant city land. These garden plots become known as "Pingree's Potato Patches" or "Pingree's Potato Farms," of which Conline gratuitously managed. In 1896, over 400 acres were cultivated providing work and food for over 1700 families. "No other plan of helping worthy people to help themselves has attracted such widespread and universal attention… Very many of the great cities of the Union have adopted the plan and carried it out with success."18

In 1896, Conline was appointed Detroit's Police Commissioner and served in that capacity until 1900. Little is known of Conline's activities during the period 1900 to 1910, when he moved his family to Washington, D.C. In 1913, he traveled to Europe with his family and returned to Washington in 1914. John Conline died, in Washington, D.C., on October 16, 1916.19 John is buried in Section 2 Site number 1183 in Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia.

William J. Roe, a classmate of John's at the Academy, wrote John's obituary:

 

    A lad of Irish parentage, son of Thomas and Mary (Cunningham) Conline, was born at Rutland, Vermont, February 9, 1844.20 Poverty and perhaps improvidence, at this period so often the bane of the Kelt, thrust the boy out upon the world at the pathetically early age of ten years. But even then John Conline manifested that sturdy and indomitable spirit which was to be his to so great a degree in after life. Despite all obstacles he not only contrived to gain for himself a livelihood, but to acquire considerable in a way of an education, having been graduated at the Rutland High School in 1860.

    These were the days of darkest America, of contending and irreconcilable factions, when concession, conciliation and compromise rudely flung aside, North and South alike mad with murder, welcomed the alternative of a land "drenched in fraternal blood," the beginning of that Homeric struggle, destined to test by the ordeal of battle whether the States should endure as a nation, or that the great democracy of the West should perish from the earth.

    Promptly at the first call for troops young Conline enlisted in the First Vermont Infantry, serving in that organization from May 2,21 to August 15, of the year 1861. Afterwards he re-enlisted, March 1, 1862, at Rutland, in the Fourth Vermont Volunteers, engaging to serve for three years of war. In this regiment he served as man-in-the-ranks until September 5, 1863, when he was discharged to accept an appointment as cadet at the United States Military Academy. This Fourth Vermont, with four other regiments, constituted the famous "Old Vermont Brigade," the Second Brigade, Second Division, Sixth Army Corps of the Army of the Potomac. With this command, chiefly under General Franklin, Conline participated in all twenty six engagements, the first being the affair of Lee's Mills, Virginia, in April, 1862,22 and the most famous the partially decisive battle of Antietam, fought under McClellan, September 16 and 17, 1862. Conline was with the Sixth Corps, at this time under command of General John Sedgwick, when after a forced march of thirty-eight miles on July 2nd, it arrived upon Gettysburg field, not quite in time to aid the gallant Fifth in the repulse of Longstreet at the "Peach Orchard," but coming "under fire" and by its presence causing the Confederates to fall back. The Sixth lay massed in reserve battle line, ready to be called into action, until Lee, after the failure of that magnificent charge of the Confederates under Pickett, was slowly retiring. One gallant action of Conline's while with the Vermont brigade must not remain unrecorded. Immediately previous to the advance of Lee across the Potomac, making that masterly flank movement towards the west and the Valley of Virginia, and while Hooker's forces lay along the Rappahannock, he was one of twenty volunteers to cross the river in the first boat, in the action of Franklin's Crossing, June 5, 1863. It was while he was with the regiment in New York City, having been ordered there to aid in suppressing the draft riots, that Conline received orders to proceed to West Point.

    Conline came to the Academy as a candidate almost directly from the field, already a veteran soldier, and with the grime of the van of war still upon him. Inured to hardship and to danger, perhaps the "hazing" at West Point (then at its very worst) chafed him less than it otherwise would. If in his heart he knew himself to be superior as a soldier to the waspish yearling corporals, he gave no sign, but stoically accepted the truculence and brief authority of these young martinets of the hour, modestly, even humbly, obeying orders, questioning none. Socially Conline was hardly at first persona grata with the upper classes or even with his own. Wholly unaccustomed to such an environment, he failed altogether to measure up to the exacting standards of the corps, always severely critical of minor manners. One curious instance of this sort of failure I recall distinctly. In marching to meals, Conline, unused to "close formation" inadvertently stumbled over the heels of his "front file," who being of a choleric temper, kicked back and sharply. Peaceful as Conline's inclinations were, and anxious to maintain pleasant relations with members of his class, yet even he understood that in some way such an assault ought not to be passed over. So he came to me to act as his "second," according to the somewhat barbaric code then prevailing. He might have chosen a better champion, for I was no pugilist, indeed did not learn till I had been some months at the Academy that was such a thing as a "Marquis of Queensberry." I later tried to beg off, but in the end "accepted the assignment." Later interviewing the "other party," it was to find him in great good humor. "Oh!" said he, grinning, when explained my errand, "that's all off. Conline has been around and apologized."

    Yes, this account of what had happened was approximately correct. Brave, as ever a man was brave, with muscular development that might well have caused the other to beware of him, Conline chose rather to take the initiative in "making up," even though that other had been the aggressor. In ways similar to this Conline showed while we were plebes together of what good stuff he was made, gentle, kindly, incapable of holding malice, chivalrous, though wholly unconventional. It is needless to say how few, even of men, still less boys in their 'teens, are capable of esteeming accurately the motives of such character.

    In his studies, fairly well grounded as he had been at the Rutland High School, Conline soon found that the terrific pace set for fourth classmen was too much for him. He dropped section after section, to be in the end found deficient. He made a brave struggle to remain his place among us 'Sixty-seven, "boning" during release from quarters, and often night after night, blanket over window and transom. It was all of no avail. From our class he dropped to 'Sixty-eight, thence in time to 'Sixty-nine, finally graduating in 'Seventy. His record of length of service as a cadet is unique; none before or since ever served seven years the Laban of academic favor for his Rachel of a diploma.

    Then too, at intervals during those long and weary years he was afflicted in "mind, body, and estate." Thrice dropped from an upper to a lower class, there came a time when even the poor consolation of being "turned back" was denied the determined Conline. It was now no longer a question of suspension; he had been found deficient, and was discharged from the academy. To this fiat of fate and the dictum of the academic board, most men, even men of good courage, would have succumbed un-protesting. Not so John Conline. With unsurpassed resolution of purpose and of character, he matched himself against the decree of authority, and Conline won. He told me the story, simply, but with a pathos of which he seemed wholly unaware, of how he borrowed enough dollars from an officer then stationed on the post (it is difficult to refrain from naming so fine a man) went on to Washington, laid his case personally before the president, and asked to be reinstated. And the president did reinstate him. Again Conline, though dropping still another class, justified the President's reversal of the fiat of fate. Conline "made good;" he was this time graduated.

    Graduating in June 1870, Conline was assigned as Second Lieutenant to the Ninth Cavalry, then serving in the Southwest, remaining with that "brunette" regiment until retired as Captain, February 25, 1891, for disability incurred "in the line of duty." In 189423 he was advanced to the rank of Major on the retired list for Civil War service, and in 1890, received a brevet for "gallant service in action against Indians in the San Andres Mountains of New Mexico." Conline married in 1872 a Miss, Emma Leland, of New York, an unfortunate and unhappy marriage, resulting in divorce in 1879.

    From time to time during the more than thirty years till I saw Conline again, vague tidings came of him, of his unhappy first marriage, and afterwards of his appointment as Police Commissioner of Detroit. It was in 1902, at the time of the great gathering of graduates in celebration of the centenary of the Academy's founding, that John Conline and I met once more. We had slept in barracks, now known as the "South Barracks," but in different divisions, and it was in the early morning in the area that I met him. In former days I greatly fear that now and then there had been some (what I must call) "snubbing" on my part. But partially to blame this (having perhaps had a "soft spot in my heart" for the "under dog"), I had more than once done him trifling favors. If "snubbing" there had been, Conline did not hold it against me. Indeed it appeared that he remembered only the "good turns," for he came up at once, face aglow and hands outstretched, greeting me: "Why, you dear old Bill Roe!" Who does not like, after long years of absence, to be thus affectionately remembered. On the way to the mess hall two young officers joined us, and we all had breakfast together. After the curious tales of Conline's life at Western Army posts and of those "family jars," I confess to having been a little dubious as to how Conline would bear himself in his later years. I saw at once, however, that he was wholly changed. The officers too, who had served under him were not merely respectful, as to a "ranking officer," but more than that; they were deferential to him as a man. As of old Conline was still modest, unassuming; but with the years had come a restraining influence, a bearing, a dignity, a deportment not to be distinguished from that of a cultured descendent of many generations of refinement.

    And all of this advancement, this fine uplifting, this cutting away from the 'backwardation" of heredity and early association, John Conline had achieved for himself, aided, perhaps more than aided, as I feel compelled to say, by the example, initiative and influence of an exceptionally cultivated woman. September 1, 1887, Conline married the second time, Miss Fanine [sic] E. Strickland, eldest daughter of Rev. Doctor E.F. Strickland, of Des Moines, Iowa. Two years after the marriage a daughter, Vivienne Duchesne, was born. With his little daughter, then in her fifteenth year, Conline made open profession of religion, uniting with the Congregational Church at Detroit.

    Conline's service as Police Commissioner of Detroit began September 1896, continuing four years. He was appointed by Hon. Hazen S. Pingree, then mayor, and later materially assisted in forwarding the benevolent scheme of cultivating unoccupied city lots, of which enterprise Conline had full charge. Various high officials of Detroit have written as to his ability and worth as a man. I regret that the limitations of space forbid more than the quoting of a few heartfelt expressions. "He proved of great value to the police force." "He was a man of sterling character." "He was well beloved." About 1910 the Conline family removed from Detroit to Washington. In 1913 he went abroad with his family for an extended tour. In 1914 on the breaking out of the European war, they were for a while under a virtual embargo in Switzerland. A classmate of the Major's Captain Robert G. Carter has written so entertaingly [sic] that the letter is given in full:

     

      ARMY AND NAVY CLUB
      Washington, December 7, 1916

      Conline's last illness dated from his experience in Switzerland and France at the outbreak of this European war, in his efforts to aid hundreds of Americans to get home, many of them in dire distress, and under an abnormal excitement to his brain and highly organized nervous system, which, as you know, had undergone severe strains in the past.

      He never seemed the same after his return. He was extremely excitable; he seemed obsessed by his experience during those weeks at Berne; but more especially in his efforts to gladden the hearts of the French reservists in the station at Lyons, France, to lift the load of distress and depression, of doubt and anxiety from the hearts of the women and children.

      His most graphic and really dramatic description of that scene as he harangued them and wrought them up almost to a pitch of frenzy by his appeals to their memories of French history, in which as a constant historical reader he was so well versed-the historians, artists, sculptors, actors, scientists and statesmen, all of whom he named to us here in the Army and Navy Club from memory, coming down to Napoleon and his marshals-all of their campaigns, etc. and his impassioned shouts of 'Long live Murat, McDonald, Ney, Kellerman, Duroc, etc., lives in our memory still.

      And it must have been a wild scene when he carried them off their feet, in patriotic response to such oratory, a strange but intense American cavalry officer, whose sympathies were all theirs but whose imperfect French would have been almost ridiculous had it not been for the sentiment behind such a noble soul, whose chief aim at that moment was to infuse courage into hearts that otherwise seemed sad and downcast. No wonder that they rushed at him with their tricolors, wanting to carry the body of our brave old John Conline on their shoulders, loaded his wife down with flowers, and crowd about his train to wish him God-speed on his way.

      I wish you success in your tribute to the memory of brave lion-hearted, noble- souled John Conline, of the classes of 1867, '68, '69 and '70.

      Most sincerely,
      R. G. Carter

    To these sentiments of admiration for this man's strength and determination of character, for the patient perseverance that undaunted by obstacles however distressing or disheartening, never faltered, but pressed on to the end, none, we may be very sure who knew him and who followed his career will dissent. I trust that none will assume that lightly or without due consideration in this brief biography incidents of Major Conline's early life and cadet days have been set forth except more fully to illustrate the splendid purpose which actuated him. He was a rarely exceptional man, and it would be well that the younger officers of the service, and members of the corps of cadets who may despond at difficulties, or whose hearts may grow faint with apprehension lest their lack of facility in learning, of what are called "gifts" might overcome them, should know how one man, so greatly handicapped, rose superior to all opposition, and by the power of will overcame every inimical force.

    The character of John Conline was heroic; he was made of the fine clay of strength and valor and enthusiasm with those heroes told of in Iliad and Aeneid, or related in the chronicles of chivalry that Jehan de Froissart laid at the feet of his liege lady Queen of the great Edward of England, Philippa of Hainault.

    William J. Roe
    Robert G. Carter"24

    _____________________________________________

    Sources:
    Arlington National Cemetery
    Membership Records of Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States
    Photograph of Major Conline courtesy of the USMA Library Archives, Annual Report of the Association of Graduates (1917)
    United States Army War College and Carlisle Barracks
    United States Military Academy Library Archives and Special Collections West Point, New York.
    White Sands Missile Range Museum

    Endnotes:

    1. Conline, John. 1898.Recollections of the Battle of Antietam and the Maryland Campaign: A Paper Read before Michigan Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, January 7th, 1897. Stone Printing Company, Detroit, Michigan, Volume 2, pp. 110-119.

    2. Kenner, Charles L. 1999.Buffalo Soldiers and Officers of the Ninth Cavalry, 1867-1898, Black and White Together. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

    3. Conline, John. 1898.Recollections of the Battle of Antietam and the Maryland Campaign: A Paper Read before Michigan Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, January 7th, 1897. Stone Printing Company, Detroit, Michigan, Volume 2, pp. 110-119.

    4. Union Vermont Volunteers, 4th Regiment, Vermont Infantry. Retrieved May 15, 2004. .

    5. Conline, John. 1898.Recollections of the Battle of Antietam and the Maryland Campaign: A Paper Read before Michigan Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, January 7th, 1897. Stone Printing Company, Detroit, Michigan, Volume 2, pp. 110-119.

    6. Kenner, Charles L. 1999.Buffalo Soldiers and Officers of the Ninth Cavalry, 1867-1898, Black and White Together. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

    7. Conline, John. 1898.Recollections of the Battle of Antietam and the Maryland Campaign: A Paper Read before Michigan Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, January 7th, 1897. Stone Printing Company, Detroit, Michigan, Volume 2, pp. 110-119.

    8. Kenner, Charles L. 1999.Buffalo Soldiers and Officers of the Ninth Cavalry, 1867-1898, Black and White Together. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

    9. USMA LIBRARY on WWW. Archives, Official Register of the Officers and Cadets (1818 - 1966) for the years 1864 p. 13, 1865 p. 14, 1866 p. 12, 1867 p. 12, 1868 p. 13, 1869 p. 21, 1870 p. 12. Retrieved May 15, 2004.

    10. USMA LIBRARY on WWW. Archives, Special Collections, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of USMA, Volume 3 Part 2, pp. 164-165; Volume 4 Part 2, pp. 204-205; Volume 5 Part 1, p. 176; Volume 6A Part 1, p. 156. Retrieved May 15, 2004.

    11. Rome, Kathy F.Laundresses on the Military Frontier, Discourse - An Online Journal by the Students of SMU, p.6. Retrieved May 15, 2004.

    12. Kenner, Charles L. 1999.Buffalo Soldiers and Officers of the Ninth Cavalry, 1867-1898, Black and White Together. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

    13. Kenner, Charles L. 1999.Buffalo Soldiers and Officers of the Ninth Cavalry, 1867-1898, Black and White Together. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, pp. 216-220. Dr. Kenner gives an excellent description of the events leading up to the courts-martial of John Conline, the nature of his nervous breakdown and the proceedings before the retirement board.

    14. Conline, John. 1903.The Campaign of 1880 Against Victorio. The Order of the Palestine Bulletin 1:81. Order of Indian Wars Collection, File V-1, U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, PA.

    15. The White Sands Missile Range Museum on WWW. The Hembrillo Battlefield Located on White Sands Missile Range. Retrieved May 15, 2004, (http://www.wsmr-history.org/Hembrillo.htm). A portrait of Lt. Conline may be found by clicking on the highlighted link, "additional companies." For an in depth description of the Hembrillo Battle and archaeological finds see, Laumbach, Karl W. HEMBRILLO: An Apache Battlefield of the Victorio War, Human Systems Research Report No. 9730, White Sands Missile Range Archaeological Research Report No. 00-06, Human Systems Research, Inc. 2000. Additional information about the Hembrillo Battle and the Victorio War can be found online.

    16. Army and Navy Journal, September 4, 1886, p. 111.

    17. USMA LIBRARY on WWW. Archives, Annual Report of the Association of Graduates (1917), Roe, William J. John Conline, pp. 78 - 83. Retrieved May 15, 2004.

    18. Conline, John. 1896.Report of Agricultural Committee, Detroit, Michigan, of the Cultivation of Idle Land by the Poor and Unemployed: Thos. Smith Press, Detroit, Michigan.

    19. USMA LIBRARY on WWW. Archives, Annual Report of the Association of Graduates (1917), Roe, William J. John Conline, pp. 78 - 83. Retrieved May 15, 2004.

    20. The February 9, 1844, date is probably in error. John's military records do not give his date of birth, rather his age is given as nineteen years and seven months at the time he entered West Point, on September 9, 1863. This can only be accurate to the nearest month, since there is a one in thirty chance that John enrolled on the exact day of his birth. If we subtract nineteen years seven months from September 9, 1863, we arrive at the February 9th, 1844 date. In his article, Recollections of the Battle of Antietam and the Maryland Campaign, John states, "I was born on the 1st day of January 1846." His birth records do not exist in either Rutland or Montpelier, Vermont, to confirm either date.

    21. InRecollections of the Battle of Antietam and the Maryland Campaign, John states, "on or about May 9, 1861."

    22. InRecollections of the Battle of Antietam and the Maryland Campaign, John states, "I joined the latter regiment [Fourth Vermont] during the siege of Yorktown, VA."

    23. USMA LIBRARY on WWW. Archives, Special Collections, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of USMA, Vol. 6A Part 1, p. 156 shows April 23, 1904, Act of April 23, 1904 Retrieved May 15, 2004.

    24. USMA LIBRARY on WWW. Archives, Annual Report of the Association of Graduates (1917), Roe, William J. John Conline, pp. 78 - 83. Retrieved May 15, 2004.

From the Homepage of the
Michigan Commandery, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States
 Copyright © 2004, Robert Tavernier