William C. Cleary anyone?

[Leon Greene]

Here's an excerpt about Cleary from my book about Dr. Luke Pryor Blackburn, to be printed by McFarland Publishers in early 2017:
"William W. Cleary’s identity was confused both in many Civil War documents and later reports, including – of all things – the indictment charging the conspirators for the Lincoln assassination. The person indicted by the government with Booth, Herold, and the other conspirators was listed as “William C. Cleary.” In fact, William Walter Cleary was the person they sought in connection with the assassination plot. Furthermore, some sources cite him as “Walter” W. Cleary. Even the revocation of the rewards for Thompson, Tucker, Sanders, Cleary, and John Surratt had him listed as William G. (not “C.” or “W.”) Cleary.
William W. Cleary was born in September 1831 in Lexington, Kentucky. He graduated from Transylvania University in 1849 and received his law degree from Transylvania University in 1951, the school both Blackburn and Jefferson Davis had also attended. Cleary was admitted to the bar of Kentucky and settled in Cynthiana, Harrison County, Kentucky, in 1852. He served in the Kentucky General Assembly. William Cleary had a unique appearance. Detroit lawyer and later a Sixth Circuit Court Judge Halmer H. Emmons would describe him as “about 30 years old, five feet 7 or 8 inches high, sandy hair grey eyes fair complexion red beard. Head little on one side, one shoulder higher than the other.”
During the Civil War, Cleary was briefly a member of Company D, 3rd Kentucky Infantry, Local Defense Troops. In the middle of June 1862, when he heard that he was about to be arrested by Union officers, and knowing that it wasn’t possible for him to escape further to the South, he fled to Canada. There he stayed at the Clifton House in Clifton, Ontario; two weeks later he went to the Queen’s Hotel in Toronto – places soon to become Confederate haunts in Canada. In September 1862 he returned to Kentucky. Cleary was briefly the Clerk of the Council of the Confederate Government of Kentucky. Cleary thereafter on January 20, 1863, became a Clerk in the Claims Division for the Second Auditor’s Office of the Confederate State Treasury Department in Richmond. Cleary then joined the group of Confederates that included Thompson, Clay, and Holcombe, serving in Canada at Jefferson Davis’ request. Cleary was also considered to be a close friend of Jefferson Davis, and Cleary’s diary records that he met with Davis on March 8, 1863, without further notation (“Called on the President”). Cleary was never completely sure about the wisdom of his joining the group of Confederates going to Canada. He, however, initially had wanted to be a part of the Canadian project. He wrote to "Governor" Richard Hawes on March 16, 1864, asking to be a member of the team going to Canada to promote the Southern cause. Cleary was interviewed on March 24 and April 7, and it seemed that he was still a candidate for the position. As late as June 15, 1863, he would record in his diary, “Am not certain yet that there is anything in it [the Canadian venture], trust there is for then I could arrange for my family.”
Cleary was informed of his own acceptance on the Canadian team on April 20. (“Saw Mr. Benjamin this morning, and I am to go…,” Cleary's diary recorded). We glean many details of the operations of the Canadian Confederates from Cleary who was commissioned as the Secretary of this group. Cleary was considered to be an honorable man, and his later testimony against Dr. Luke Blackburn would bear much weight in the assessment of the veracity of the other witnesses."
Regarding his later years:
" The press ultimately didn’t treat William Walter Cleary with much respect, either. Soon after hearings and trials had begun, Cleary was described as a man who “sneaks round in a very subdued manner, and if he is seen in the bar of the Queen’s [Hotel] it is only when he hopes to receive an invitation to drink.” Cleary initially had a bounty price of $10,000 on his head, but he never faced trial. He never applied individually for a pardon, but the Presidential Proclamation of General Amnesty ultimately covered him. Cleary finally returned to Cynthiana, Kentucky, where he continued to practice law and was later elected County Judge. In 1873 he was elected to be the Twelfth Judicial District Commonwealth Attorney. Cleary died in Covington, Kenton County, Kentucky, on March 16, 1897, at age 66, of Bright’s Disease of the kidney."
There's a lot more about Cleary in the book.