Jun 21, 1830Alexandria, Virginia, United StatesDied on 26 Sep 1902 (aged 72)Cancer
About John A. Haydon
John A.
Haydon (1830 – 1902) was a prominent American surveyor and civil engineer.
As a self-taught civil engineer, Haydon made significant contributions to American railroading.
Haydon's railroad career spanned the Baltimore and Ohio railroad expansion to the Ohio river in 1853 and several other railroads to the last transcontinental railroad, the Northern Pacific railway.
Haydon led the 1872 Yellowstone River expedition, where he faced a Sioux Indian skirmish led by Sitting Bull, Red Cloud and Crazy Horse at the Battle of Pryor's Creek, Montana.
He also served as a captain in the Confederate Army Corps of Engineers under Generals Tilghman and Beauregard; captured at the battle of Fort Henry, early in the Civil War in 1862, he was paroled at Aiken, South Carolina, in November 1862 to serve the rest of the war, including the Richmond–Petersburg Campaign.
In the latter part of his life, he worked locating branch railroads such as the Pennsylvania railroad in Maryland and for the Western Maryland railroad.