Author: Ladd, John
Biography:
Ladd, John (fl 1814)
Ladd's only published work begins with a versified spiritual journal, starting in 1807. The book is dated 1813 from Amsterdam NY and was printed in Schenectady NY in 1814. There is an extensive list of subscribers from those two towns. The only documented American John Ladd of about the same age was commissioned in the US Army at the end of March 1813 and served as a surgeon's mate, but he resigned three months later. His regiment was part of the New Hampshire infantry. It was probably the same John Ladd, by then an assistant surgeon in another infantry regiment, who was court-martialled for minor infringements of regulations in Madras in 1829. He was judged guilty but because of extenuating circumstances, his sentence was remitted and he went back to work. He might or might not be the same John Ladd: internal evidence is against it, given that the author was solidly based in New York State and that the poems deal with sin, friendship, illness, grace, etc. and not with any explicitly military or professional matters. (Heitman; Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China, and Australia 1 [1830]: 98-9)