Captain John Hoagland

If not for the many obituaries published upon his death in September 1912, we could know almost nothing about the life of Hillsborough Township native Captain John Hoagland, who nearly captured Lincoln's assassin in 1865!

John Hoagland, Captain,
Compnay K, Thirteenth Regiment, New York Volunteers

He was born in April 1833 in Flaggtown (the original Flaggtown located at the crossroads of South Branch Road and East Mountain Road). He was of one of the Dutch families that settled New Amsterdam about 1650, and came to New Jersey three generations later in the mid 1700s. 

As a young man he left the Flaggtown farm to make his way in the New York import/export business. He married Louisa Singee in 1856, At the start of the Civil War he recruited a company of cavalry volunteers which was mustered in as Company C, Thirteenth Regiment, New York Volunteers and held the rank of First Lieutenant. He was later promoted to captain in Company K.

On April 14, 1965 the Thirteenth Regiment was camped on Capitol Hill charged with guarding Washington, D.C.  Hoagland's Company was the first to pick up the trail of John Wilkes Booth after the assassination. He followed Booth through St. Mary's County, Maryland and almost had him at the home of Dr. Mudd where Booth was having his broken leg set.

Booth was able to avoid capture by hiding in the woods for several days, and the chase was taken up by others after the assassin crossed the Potomac into Virginia on April 23. Nevertheless, Hoagland's party were able to capture a co-conspirator and as many as thirty suspected accomplices.

After the war, Hoagland - mustered out with the rank of major - returned to New York and was engaged in the import produce business. He retired with his wife to a farm near South Branch, NJ in 1902 where his daughter Louise Dalley had settled. He also had two sons, Ira and Elmo. After the death of his wife in 1910, he went to live with his son Elmo in Brooklyn, where he passed away on August 31, 1912.