Martin Burke was born around 1830 in Galway, Ireland. He eventually immigrated to America, and he may have settled in Missouri. By the early 1860s, he was working as a merchant.

 

He sided with the Confederacy during the Civil War. In the summer of 1861, he received a commission as captain of Company D of the 1^st Missouri Infantry. The regiment took part in the Battle of Shiloh. In November 1862, Confederate officials combined the regiment with the 4^th Missouri Infantry. The consolidated regiment participated in the Vicksburg campaign and the Atlanta campaign.

 

He was promoted to major in May 1862 and then to lieutenant colonel in May 1864. He was wounded in May 1863, but he eventually recovered and rejoined the regiment. Union forces captured him on December 28, 1864, and imprisoned him at Johnson’s Island in Ohio. He swore an oath of amnesty on May 16, 1865. He died sometime after the war.

SOURCES