Military Courts and Courts-Martials – only a ‘skeleton of direction’ to Guide Rulings

By Joan Wenner, J.D. · Originally published June 2023 · pp. 9

Military Courts and Courts-Martials – only a ‘skeleton of direction’ to Guide Rulings By Joan Wenner, J.D. In the Civil War, notwithstanding ‘command responsibility’ issues, it’s been estimated about 80,000 actual Federal courts-martials were conducted. These largely targeted lower ranking soldiers, involving some 178,000 men. Some resulted in acquittal. More than half the military trials were held in the border states of Missouri, Maryland, and Kentucky. Many case files for the army, for example, are searchable by regiment at the National Archives at: archives.gov/research/ military/army/court-martial-casefiles. (Records of General CourtsMartial and Courts of Inquiry of the Navy Department 1797-1867 are available at Microscopy 273.) Of the three types of military courts over which a Judge Advocate presides, a general court-martial is the most serious. Some military courts were major events as with the Fitz John Porter trial. Read about the slew of charges and his trial: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

court-martial_of_Fitz_John_ Porter At the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Federals had to cross a wide expanse of open land to attack Jackson’s troops who were protected by an unfinished railroad bed and cut. Marching across open fields toward a fortified enemy worried General Porter and caused him to ignore orders from General Pope, an action for which he was later court-martialed. At Folly Island, South Carolina, where the court-martial assembled to hear the case of Captain Henry Krausneck, Company D, 7th Pennsylvania Volunteers, stemming from his actions at Gettysburg on July 1 and 2, 1863. For a link to the trial transcript see story reported at: Gettysburgcompiler. org/2011/10/13 (written by Mary Roll.) Union General Henry Halleck was among the first to recognize the need for administering justice within the military; on January 1, 1862, he issued General

Order No.1 to implement courts. Halleck’s General Order No. 38 addressed “declaring disloyal sentiments and opinions with the object and purpose of weakening the power of the government.” The U.S. Code of Military Justice was first drafted, then passed by Congress in 1950. Its latest reincarnation was the Military Justice Act of 2016. Joan Wenner, J.D. has contributed for many years to the Civil War News and The Artilleryman among other history publications and has a law degree. Comments are welcomed by email to joan_writer@yahoo.com