John C. Babcock (September 6, 1836 – November 20, 1908) was an amateur rower, a member of the secret service for the Union Army during the Civil War, and a founder of the

New York Athletic Club The New York Athletic Club is a private social club and athletic club in New York state. Founded in 1868, the club has approximately 8,600 members and two facilities: the City House, located at 180 Central Park South in Manhattan, and Travers ...

Early life

Babcock was born in Warwick, Rhode Island, and his family moved to Chicago In 1855. Babcock worked for one of the largest architectural firms in Chicago, and he contributed to the designs of numerous Athenian mansions on the Millionaire's Row along Michigan Avenue.

Civil War service

Babcock served the entire Civil War. Initially, Babcock volunteered for the

Sturgis Rifles The Sturges' Rifles (also spelled Sturgis) was an infantry company that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Service The Sturges' Rifles were a company of Illinois militia sharpshooters mustered into Federal service on May 6, 1 ...

as an enlisted soldier in 1861, but he soon was offered a civilian position to be a principal scout for the

Army of the Potomac The Army of the Potomac was the principal Union Army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. It was created in July 1861 shortly after the First Battle of Bull Run and was disbanded in June 1865 following the surrender of the Confedera ...

. Babcock became a skilled interrogator of captured Confederates. In 1862, Babcock worked as a Confederate order-of-battle expert with the Topographical Department under

Allan Pinkerton Allan J. Pinkerton (August 25, 1819 – July 1, 1884) was a Scottish cooper, abolitionist, detective, and spy, best known for creating the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in the United States and his claim to have foiled a plot in 1861 to a ...

and made maps for General George B. McClellan. In one of his reports, Babcock's estimate of enemy forces was off by less than one percent. Early in 1863, Babcock joined the

Bureau of Military Information The Bureau of Military Information (BMI) was the first formal and organized American intelligence agency, active during the American Civil War. Predecessors Allan Pinkerton was contracted by Federal and a number of state and local governments to s ...

under Colonel

George H. Sharpe George Henry Sharpe (February 26, 1828 – January 13, 1900) was an American lawyer, soldier, United States Secret Service, Secret Service officer, diplomat, politician, and Member of the Board of General Appraisers. Sharpe was born in 1828, in ...

to gather intelligence. While in this secret service, Babcock provided detailed maps for aeronaut

Thaddeus S. C. Lowe Thaddeus Sobieski Constantine Lowe (August 20, 1832 – January 16, 1913), also known as Professor T. S. C. Lowe, was an American Civil War aeronaut, scientist and inventor, mostly self-educated in the fields of chemistry, meteorology, and a ...

, who made frequent balloon flights to obtain tactical intelligence. In 1863, Babcock discovered

Robert E. Lee Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War, towards the end of which he was appointed the overall commander of the Confederate States Army. He led the Army of Nort ...

's forward movement, which helped end the

Battle of Gettysburg The Battle of Gettysburg () was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. In the battle, Union Major General George Meade's Army of the Po ...

. At the

Battle of Appomattox Court House The Battle of Appomattox Court House, fought in Appomattox County, Virginia, on the morning of April 9, 1865, was one of the last battles of the American Civil War (1861–1865). It was the final engagement of Confederate General in Chief, Rober ...

in 1865, Babcock found General Lee under an apple tree and facilitated the surrender of the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

. Even though he was a civilian, Babcock was unofficially called "Captain Babcock" and then later "Colonel Babcock".

Rowing legacy

Babcock was a rowing innovator and one of the most active people in the rowing community during his lifetime. In 1857, he and his friend William Buckingham Curtis organized the Metropolitan Rowing Club of Chicago, which was the first amateur rowing and racing club in the West. In the summer of 1857, Babcock invented the tracked sliding seat for his sculling boat and perfected it by 1870. In 1859, he and Curtis won every rowing event in the annual games at the Chicago Caledonian Club. During the winter of 1869/1870, Babcock created the first indoor rowing machine. In 1872, Babcock wrote the bylaws and helped create the

National Association of Amateur Oarsmen The National Association of Amateur Oarsmen, organized in 1872, was the first national governing body of the sport of rowing in the United States, and the first American sports organization to publish a definition of "amateur". Before the NAAO, re ...

(NAAO). He was the first President of the NAAO, which later became the United States Rowing Association ( USRowing). With

Harry Buermeyer Henry Ernest (Harry) Buermeyer II (August 19, 1839 – October 10, 1922) was an American athlete in the late 1800s and is considered a "father of American athletics" due to his major contributions towards the growth of amateur sports throughou ...

and Curtis, Babcock helped found the

(NYAC) in 1868. Babcock was the first elected Vice-President of the NYAC, where he encouraged the separation of amateur and professional athletics.

Post-war career

After the war Babcock returned to architecture, establishing a practice in New York City by 1868. Circa 1881 he formed a partnership with fellow architect Thomas H. McAvoy, though Babcock & McAvoy lasted only until McAvoy's death in 1887. Circa 1891 Babcock was in partnership with a Mr. Morgan as Babcock & Morgan. Babcock then practiced alone until a few years before his death. He made a specialty of apartments and tenements. Extant works by Babcock and his partners in New York City include 67 Ludlow Street (1884, with McAvoy), and 36 Hudson Street (1891–92, with Morgan). Outside the city, he was responsible for the rebuilding of the Episcopal Church of St. John the Less at Scarsdale, New York (1882–83, with McAvoy). One of his largest projects was an apartment house named the Albany (1874). Located at 215 West 51st Street and now demolished, this was one of the first large apartment buildings built in New York.Elizabeth Collins Cromley,
Alone Together: A History of New York's Early Apartments
' (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1990)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Babcock, John C. 1836 births 1908 deaths American male rowers Union Army civilians Union Army soldiers Organization founders Architects from New York City Architects from Rhode Island